Officials in Israel fear that the Lebanese Government’s statement agreeing to deploy its armed forces in southern Lebanon and Hizballah’s consent to this move is a tactical trick aimed at foiling deliberations in the UN Security Council to stop the fighting and deploy a multinational force to the region.
The assessment in Israel is that the statement was said in order to stop the Israeli ground offensive and expansion of the sterile zone all the way to the Litani River.
Nonetheless, officials in Jerusalem said that Israel will be content if the Lebanese will shift from words to actions and follow through with the deployment.