Lebanese, Israeli and U.N. officers met on the border Monday to discuss the pullout of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region after a U.N.-imposed cease-fire halted fighting in the monthlong conflict.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces fired on two Hizbullah fighters in southern Lebanon just hours after the guns fell silent.
A Lebanese Cabinet minister told Europe-1 radio in France that Lebanese forces could move into the southern part of the country as early as Wednesday. The U.N. plan calls for a joint Lebanese-international force to move south of the Litani River, about 18 miles from the Israeli border, and stand as a buffer between Israel and Hizbullah.
"The Lebanese army is readying itself along the Litani to cross the river in 48 to 72 hours," said Lebanese Communications Minister Marwan Hamade.
France and Italy, along with Turkey and Malaysia, voiced willingness to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force, but consultations are needed to hammer out the force's makeup and mandate.
Officials said Israeli troops would begin pulling out as soon as the Lebanese and international troops begin deploying to the area. But it appeared Israeli forces were staying put for now. Israel also would maintain its air and sea blockade of Lebanon to prevent arms from reaching Hizbullah activists, Israeli army officials told the AP.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday said that in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701 passed Friday, an all-out ceasefire should now be enforced in Lebanon. "The Security Council passed an unfair and one-sided resolution to end the Lebanese war after it found the occupying regime of Qods, with its month-long brutal attacks on Lebanon, to be losing, and now the resolution establishing an all-out ceasefire should be enforced," Ahmadinejad said while addressing a cabinet session.
Pointing to the broad and unprecedented air and ground attacks of the Zionist regime on the Lebanese people, destruction of the country's infrastructure and massacre of civilians, particularly women and children, he said the Zionist regime realized that it was powerless in the face of the brave resistance of the Lebanese people.
"Aside from the humiliation, it (Zionist regime) received as a result of its failure to achieve its military objectives, the myth of the regime's military invincibility has been destroyed thanks to the the enduring faith and resistance of Lebanon's Hizbullah," he said, according to IRNA.
"Henceforth, all power equations in the region will witness a change," he added.
The president said the Lebanese nation are evidently the winners in the battle with brilliant images showing their resistance and ability to strike losses on the enemy. "Several prominent politicians and influential circles in the region who predicted a different outcome will be ashamed of their stances in this battle. They will gradually experience the outcome of their incorrect stances," Ahmadinejad said.
