Prior to taking up his duties, General Guillaume Ponchan, the head of the French military delegation in the five-member committee in charge of monitoring the ceasefire between Lebanon and Hezbollah, met with Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday.
During the meeting, which was attended by French Ambassador to Lebanon Herve Magro, Mikati asserted that the “Lebanese priority is the ceasefire and the reinforcement of the Lebanese Army’s deployment in southern Lebanon.”
Mikati further underlined that Lebanon’s top priority is to ensure “the withdrawal of the Israeli Army from Lebanese territories.”
Furthermore, US Ambassador Lisa Johnson and US General Jasper Jeffers, who heads the monitoring committee, met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss field developments after the implementation of the ceasefire.
Earlier on Thursday, Ambassador Johnson had presented General Jeffers to Mikati. Jeffers will promote the ceasefire accord by evaluating its execution and offering military-technical guidance, the US Embassy said.
On the other hand, the French Embassy stated that the supervisory mechanism will ensure the monitoring of the implementation of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon “in close cooperation with the Lebanese Army, the Israeli Army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).”
According to a statement issued by the embassy, the mechanism will also encompass the Military Technical Committee in support of Lebanon to contribute to the development and deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces in southern Lebanon, “to which France reiterates its support, within the framework of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”
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