NNA - This afternoon, General Abbas Ibrahim received in his office the Japanese Ambassador to Iraq, Futoshi Matsumoto, who is conducting a regional tour including Lebanon to discuss the current situation in the Middle East, particularly the ongoing war in Gaza and the possibilities of escalation in southern Lebanon.

Matsumoto, who formerly served as Japan's special envoy to Syria, inquired about the prospects of the war expanding southward. General Ibrahim's opinion was that "there is no fear of a comprehensive war in southern Lebanon." He pointed out that "there will be no unconventional escalation different from what is happening on the Lebanese front." He noted several considerations governing this trend, notably that "the Israeli army is too incapacitated to wage war on a second front. Nine months after the outbreak of the war with Gaza, this army has suffered significant losses in terms of human casualties and equipment. Therefore, it will need several years to reorganize its ranks, fill human gaps, and address equipment and armament shortages, as well as train new soldiers and restore its organizational and disciplinary levels."

Regarding the Gaza war, General Ibrahim reiterated that he does not see "a possibility of a near ceasefire in Gaza, because its primary condition is a permanent ceasefire." He added, "The Israeli enemy continues to prevaricate on this point, and does not want a permanent ceasefire but seeks to recover all Israeli missing persons held by Palestinian forces without committing to a permanent ceasefire, which means it aims to retrieve the missing persons from Palestinian forces and then resume killing operations."

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