By Nohad Topalian | 2024-03-19

BEIRUT -- Hizbullah's reopening of the southern front with Israel and its disastrous repercussions on Lebanese civilians have sparked fresh calls for the implementation of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1701.

Resolution 1701, of 2006, stipulates that Hizbullah cease its military operations and withdraw from the border area, and provides for a zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River that is free of militants and weapons.

Since Hizbullah took the unilateral decision to go to war after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, defying Lebanese and international authorities, Lebanon has seen widespread demands for the implementation of UN resolutions.

Lawmakers, politicians, clerics and Hizbullah opponents are demanding the implementation of Resolution 1701, at a time when Lebanon is coming under international pressure to ensure its security and rein in militias.

The implementation of Resolution 1701 is "a Lebanese, regional and international demand, and the demands for it have never stopped," Change Movement head Elie Mahfoud told Al-Fassel.

"Hizbullah is impeding the implementation of Resolution 1701, and disregarding the demand of the Lebanese, in accordance with its agenda that serves Iran," Mahfoud said.

"All of Hizbullah's actions over more than two decades inside Lebanon and in the regional environment, and currently its opening of the southern front, are actions that harm the Lebanese people," Mahfoud said.

A costly conflict

When Hizbullah got involved in the Israel-Hamas war under the slogan of 'unity of the battlefields,' "it was not ready for a very costly war," international relations professor and political writer Khaled al-Ezzi told Al-Fassel.

Its entry into the conflict led to massive destruction and put entire border villages out of service, he said, displacing local residents who left behind unharvested tobacco and olive crops.

These residents did not receive assistance or compensation from Hizbullah or from Iran, which the Iran-backed party had claimed the Islamic Republic would provide, he added.

Hizbullah suffered a high number of deaths, both of its own leaders and among its traditional base, while economic and social activities were disrupted.

People are becoming frightened by the cycle of attacks and reprisals in which Nabatiyeh in Lebanon and Kiryat Shmona in Israel have become targets, al-Ezzi said, and have been openly complaining about the violence.

The ongoing war "has become difficult for Hizbullah, but it is working according to Iran's agenda and sees Lebanon as nothing but a card in the hands of the Iranian negotiator," al-Ezzi said.

"Iran is escalating through Hizbullah, which is pressing to have Resolution 1701 amended to keep its weapons," he added.

A threat to Lebanon

Hizbullah's decision to enter into skirmishes with Israel "could escalate and turn into an open war" that will drag in the entire nation, Lebanese Center for Research and Consulting director Hassan Qutb told Al-Fassel.

In this eventuality, he said, the entire country would bear the cost of Hizbullah's decision, "which it made unilaterally, without involving the legitimate authority" -- i.e., the government and the army.

This unilateral approach "led most of the Lebanese to demand the implementation of Resolution 1701" and affirm the authority of the state and all its institutions, Qutb said.