عباس هدلا

At the end of next December, the south will face a new scene it has not known for 48 years. UNIFIL forces will certainly leave, Resolution 1701 did not achieve its goals according to its critics, and the framework agreement has not yet reached the stage of final implementation. Between these headings, the south stands before a decisive phase whose course depends on the state’s ability to restore its security and sovereign decision and prevent the end of the international mission from turning into a new vacuum whose price the southerners will pay, and it will be costly.

Whoever bets on the role of the United Nations or foreign states to protect the south and ensure the safety of its people is mistaken. The south and its people are the responsibility of the military institution, and the army must not be accused of betrayal when it carries out its national duties in the south. If the absence of a Lebanese decision continues, the south will remain a card in Iran’s hand and expose its residents to further displacement and polarization.

But the challenge is not replacing one international force with another or changing the names of mechanisms, but in defining clear powers and mutual guarantees, and enabling the Lebanese Army to extend state authority over all its territory.