New Leaders in Lebanon Face Test as Israel Is Poised to Keep Troops There

When Israel and Hezbollah signed a temporary truce in November, the agreement was hailed as a first step toward ending Lebanon’s deadliest war in decades.

Both Hezbollah and Israel agreed to withdraw their forces from southern Lebanon within 60 days. The Lebanese Army and U.N. peacekeepers would secure the area. And if the truce held, negotiators hoped the agreement would become permanent, returning a measure of calm to a turbulent region.

But as the 60-day truce expired on Sunday, a very different scenario was taking shape.

Israeli forces appeared poised to remain in parts of southern Lebanon, stoking fears among Lebanese of a sustained Israeli occupation and renewed hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Averting those prospects is a critical test for Lebanon’s new leaders, President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam, as they seek to wrestle back political control from Hezbollah, the country’s dominant political and military force.

Any prolonged Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon could breathe new life into Hezbollah, a group that was founded to liberate Lebanon from Israeli occupation and that has portrayed itself as the only force capable of protecting Lebanon’s borders, experts say.