Hezbollah said to demand Germany be booted from UNIFIL for its ‘complicity’ with Israel

Hezbollah demands that Germany be permanently removed from the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon after it became an “accomplice of the enemy,” according to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, affiliated with the Shiite terror group.

On October 17, a German warship operating as part of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission brought down an unmanned flying object off the coast of Lebanon. Berlin has also authorized over $100 million in military exports to Israel in the last three months, according to foreign ministry data.

Al-Akhbar further outlines Hezbollah’s position in ongoing talks for a ceasefire. The terror group demands that Israel completely cease its “aggression” as a necessary precondition for further negotiations, adding that it has “not made any commitment” to disconnect the Lebanese front from the Gaza front, since this would run counter to its ideology of a “united resistance.”

Hezbollah reportedly insists that no amendment be made to Security Council Resolution 1701, the UN decision that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese army.

The resolution has gone largely unenforced since it was passed, allowing Hezbollah to build up a formidable arms cache and defensive capabilities, with neither UNIFIL peacekeepers nor the Lebanese army willing to challenge the Iran-backed terror group.

Al-Akhbar says that the terror group is not opposed in principle to increasing the number of Lebanese or international armed forces, but refuses to add new countries to the peacekeeping mission.

According to a report in Axios last week, Israel has demanded that even after a ceasefire deal is concluded, IDF troops be allowed to engage in “active enforcement” to make sure Hezbollah doesn’t rearm and rebuild its military infrastructure close to the border.

The terror group further says that it will not negotiate over giving up its weapons and that after the war, it will do “anything in its power to preserve them,” according to al-Akhbar. In the meantime, Hezbollah says it is prepared to confront Israel in a long war, and it will keep fighting despite assassinations of its leaders, thanks to the organizational structure of its jihadists, the paper adds.

Al-Akhbar confirms that the terror group is represented in ongoing negotiations by Nabih Berri, the Shiite speaker of the Lebanese Parliament and a Hezbollah ally. Talks have been ongoing with foreign mediators Egypt, Algeria, Qatar and France, and there is an open communication channel with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the paper adds.