The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | January 24th, 2025: Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Faces Major Test & Syria's Islamist Rulers Issue Warning To Jerusalem
24 Jan 2025
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First, tensions are once again flaring with Hezbollah, as Israeli leaders say they will not withdraw their troops from Lebanon by Sunday’s ceasefire deadline, throwing the future of the peace deal into question. Then, turning to Israel’s northeast, leaders in Jerusalem are signaling they intend to maintain their troop presence in a demilitarized buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, sparking concerns about a potential confrontation. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Friday, 24 January. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, tensions are once again flaring with Hezbollah as Israeli leaders say they will not withdraw their troops from Lebanon by Sunday's ceasefire deadline, throwing the future of the peace deal into question.
Then, turning to Israel's northeast, leaders in Jerusalem are signaling that they intend to maintain their troop presence in a demilitarized buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, sparking concerns about a potential confrontation. But first, our afternoon spotlight.
While Israel and Hamas have begun implementing the terms of their historic ceasefire in Gaza, it appears that Jerusalem's fragile truce with Hezbollah in Lebanon is at risk of collapse.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said Friday that the Israeli military would not complete its full withdrawal from southern Lebanon by the 60-day deadline set under their ceasefire with leaders in Beirut, citing a failure by Hezbollah and the Lebanese military to adhere to the terms of the agreement. That's according to a report from the Times of Israel.
Specifically, Israel says the Lebanese army has deployed too slowly to a buffer zone along their border with Israel, and that Hezbollah is still operating in areas covered by the truce.
Officials with the Israeli military have said they are still finding large caches of Hezbollah weapons in southern Lebanon, and that in some locations, the Lebanese military has even been seen aiding the Iranian-backed terror group. Well, that's shocking.
Netanyahu's office released a statement Friday saying, "...the IDF withdrawal is conditional upon the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon. Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by Lebanon, the gradual withdrawal process will continue." As a reminder, Israel reached a limited truce with Hezbollah on November 27th to stop hostilities for at least 60 days.
The deal requires the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon and for Hezbollah to retreat north beyond the Latani River in southern Lebanon. In theory, by this Sunday, January 26th, the only groups allowed to be present south of the Latani River are the Lebanese military and UN peacekeeping forces.
But Israel and Hezbollah have repeatedly accused each other of violating the terms of the agreement and have engaged in a number of tit-for-tat strikes since the ceasefire was implemented.
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