The strategic hilltop of Ali al-Tahir has become a flashpoint in Lebanese-Israeli negotiations, with Hezbollah refusing Israeli demands to hand it to the army.
Ali al-Tahir, a rise near Nabatiyeh commanding wide views across the south, has become one of the most dangerous points of political and military confrontation in southern Lebanon. Control of the high ground offers advantage in surveillance, operational management and control of movement corridors. The Israeli military has sought to reach it for months, declaring control in June, a claim Hezbollah denied.
The hill has now entered directly into negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. An Israeli proposal to hand the position to the Lebanese army was put forward as a condition for completing the eighth round of talks in Rome. Hezbollah rejected the proposal and declared it will not surrender the hilltop.
Any Israeli attempt to take the position by land will face a response from Hezbollah. Any such response could trigger wider Israeli strikes, potentially widening into an uncontrollable escalation that could reach the Apple region and the heights of Jabal al-Rihan in Jezzine district, or further still to bombing of the southern suburbs if Iran sees itself implicated, according to reports of Iranian Revolutionary Guards positioned in tunnels with party fighters.
Hezbollah's refusal to hand over the hilltop to the army raises fundamental questions about the Lebanese state's ability to carry out what it commits to in negotiations, particularly on disarming militant groups in trial areas. The experience south of the Litani River remains incomplete.
Some observers fear Ali al-Tahir will become a new fortress like Shaqif, where the Israeli military advances on the ground while the Lebanese negotiating delegation retreats, making each Israeli gain on the map a pressure point on the Rome table.
They argue the new administration under President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam must move from decisions banning Hezbollah's military and security activities to actual enforcement, without repeating what happened after Security Council resolution 1701 was issued two decades ago.
