Netanyahu tells Hezbollah, Iran to get out of here during southern Lebanon visit

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists had “no business” being in Southern Lebanon after Jerusalem and Beirut mutually recognized each other last week.Visiting Israel Defense Forces troops deployed in the security zone in Southern Lebanon, Netanyahu stated: “We say to both Iran and Hezbollah: Get out of here.”The premier praised the troops for helping secure the agreement with Beirut, saying it would allow “two sovereign states” to restore “a reality of security and prosperity” along their shared border.He said the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement signed on Friday was a “slap in the face” to the Iranian axis and warned it “won’t necessarily go unchallenged” by Tehran and its proxies.“We are very proud of what we have achieved thanks to your brave action and also the decisions we have made,” Netanyahu continued.“Our insistence is that we will not leave Southern Lebanon until the threat is eliminated.

As long as Hezbollah is armed and present here, posing a threat to us, we will remain here.”Netanyahu told troops to “not wait, act” when confronting terrorist threats in the security zone.“The most important thing for you to know is that our directive—from me, the defense minister, the chief of staff and the deputy chief of staff—is to protect yourselves first,” he said.“This is an ironclad directive,” he added.Netanyahu said the Jewish state would maintain control of the buffer zones in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip, adding that it would “no longer allow an army of terrorists to have a foothold on our border.”He noted that Hezbollah had been “the most important link in the Iranian axis,” with an arsenal that totaled 150,000 missiles and rockets before the war.

He claimed the group now retains about 8% of that stockpile and said the IDF eliminated some 9,000 terror operatives, including hundreds in recent weeks.Israeli forces also pushed Hezbolla...