The head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, pledged on Friday to coordinate closely with the Lebanese army to implement a ceasefire deal with Israel, which he said his group had agreed to "with heads held high".
It was his first address since a ceasefire came into effect on Wednesday after more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel that decimated swathes of Lebanon and killed 4,000 people including hundreds of women and children.
Qassem said Hezbollah had "approved the deal, with the resistance strong in the battlefield, and our heads held high with our right to defend (ourselves)."
The ceasefire stipulates that Hezbollah will withdraw from areas south of the Litani river, which runs some 30 km (20 miles) north of the border with Israel, and that the Lebanese army will deploy troops there as Israeli ground troops withdraw.
"There will be high-level coordination between the Resistance (Hezbollah) and the Lebanese army to implement the commitments of the deal," Qassem said.
The Lebanese army has already sent additional troops to the south but is preparing a detailed deployment plan to share with Lebanon's cabinet, security sources and officials have said.
That effort has been complicated by the continuing presence of Israeli troops on Lebanese territory. The deal grants them a full 60 days to complete their withdrawal.
The Israeli military has issued restrictions on people returning to villages along Lebanon's border with Israel and has fired at people in those villages in recent days, calling those movements a violation of the truce.
Both the Lebanese army and Hezbollah have accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire in those instances, and by launching an airstrike above the Litani River on Thursday.
Qassem said the group had scored a "divine victory" against Israel even greater than that declared after the two foes last fought in 2006.
"To those that were betting that Hezbollah would be weakened, we are sorry, their bets have failed," he said.
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Lebanon’s cabinet on Friday endorsed an army plan to disarm Hezbollah as Shi’ite ministers stage walk out in protest.
Israel is prepared to support Lebanon in efforts to disarm Hezbollah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Monday, following a Lebanese cabinet decision to back a U.S. disarmament plan for the Iran-backed group.
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has arrived in Beirut for his fourth visit since June, seeking to reinforce a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, days after the Cabinet backed a plan to disarm Hezbollah and other non-state groups.
The United States has proposed a comprehensive four-phase plan that calls for Hezbollah's full disarmament and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from five positions in southern Lebanon by the end of this year.
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NATO has strengthened its security to safeguard undersea infrastructure, since a suspected sabotage in January this year in the Baltic Sea. The alliance now deploys air and naval patrols, and warns that attacks will not go unpunished.
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