US envoy Barrack calls on Israel to comply with Lebanon ceasefire deal

US Syria envoy Tom Barrack on Monday called on Israel to comply with the ceasefire agreement that ended its 13-month conflict with Hezbollah in November.

Under the truce, both sides were to withdraw their forces from southern Lebanon and end hostilities, while the Lebanese government was to disarm the Iran-backed group.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's government has since approved plans to strip Hezbollah of its weapons and deployed the Lebanese army into much of the south.

Meanwhile, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes across the country since the ceasefire came into effect and continues to occupy five areas close to the border.

"There's always a step-by-step approach but I think the Lebanese government has done their part. They've taken the first step. Now what we need is Israel to comply," Barrack said in Beirut following a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

"We're all moving in the right direction," he said after meeting parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally.

The Lebanese prime minister said Washington needed to "fulfil its responsibility in pressuring Israel halt hostilities", withdraw troops and release Lebanese prisoners it holds.

Asked by reporters whether he expected to see Israel fully withdraw from Lebanese territory and stop its violations, Barrack said that "that's exactly the next step" needed.

"We need participation on the part of Israel, and we need an economic plan for prosperity, restoration and renovation," the US diplomat added, with Lebanon weighed down by an economic crisis.

Barrack said Washington was "in the process of now discussing with Israel what their position is", adding that "in the next few weeks you're going to see progress on all sides."

The diplomat's visit comes less than two weeks after the Lebanese cabinet agreed to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year, an unprecedented step since other armed factions gave up their weapons more than 30 years ago.

The cabinet endorsed the introduction of the US text, which lists 11 objectives including to "ensure the sustainability" of the ceasefire, and to phase out "the armed presence of all non-state actors, including Hezbollah" across all Lebanese territory.

It also provides for demarcating Lebanon's land borders with Israel and neighbouring Syria, and a process involving the international community to support reconstruction.

Hezbollah, the only faction that retained its weapons after the civil war, has vowed to resist efforts by the government to disarm it.

"The resistance will not surrender its weapons while aggression continues, occupation persists, and we will fight it," the group's leader Naim Qassem said on Friday.

On Sunday, Aoun told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya channel authorities would do "everything possible... to spare Lebanon any internal or external shock".

If Lebanon rejected the US plan, "then Israel will intensify its attacks, Lebanon will be economically isolated, and none of us will be able to respond to the aggression," he said.

(AFP and TNA staff)