Lebanon Starts To Regain Control

For now, traffic to and from the Beirut airport is only allowed by way of Amman. Lebanese officials gave no reason for the restriction. However, Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries which signed peace treaties with Israel and have full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

Although the two flights would mark the first time commercial flights arrived since fighting erupted, the government has made no formal announcement that the airport is officially open. Airport officials said full commercial flights could resume next week.

In southern Lebanon, Lebanese troops in 10 armored carriers mounted on flatbed trucks drove across a newly installed metal bridge over the Litani at dawn, escorted by several military vehicles. The bridge was built by the army to replace a structure that was bombed by Israeli warplanes during the 34-day offensive.

"It's a ghost town here, except for the maybe 50 Lebanese army vehicles, all lined up on this main road," reports CBS News correspondent Kristen Gillespie. "They've got supplies, they've got water, they've got sentry posts, they've even got vending machines."

Lebanese Brig. Gen. Charles Sheikhani, speaking outside the Marjayoun barracks where the Israeli military headquarters were based during Israel's 18-year occupation from 1982-2000, said the entire 10th Brigade of 2,500 men he commands would be in charge of a region.

"Since 1968, the army has not come here. This is our first time since then," Sheikhani said.

Residents welcomed the troops in Marjayoun and nearby villages, a largely Christian area where Hezbollah's Shiite Muslim militants have little support.

"Today is a new beginning for us in south Lebanon," said George Najm, a 23-year-old from nearby Qlaia. "We'll need some time to feel safe but it's a great start."

"I feel safer now," said Shadi Shammas, a 30-year-old Marjayoun native. "The army before was not like now. Now, if Hezbollah has guns, the army can take them and that wasn't the case before."

A videotape has surfaced of the Lebanese general who was in charge of the forces in Marjayoun welcoming the Israeli forces upon their arrival earlier this month, "sitting with them, chatting with them, and drinking tea," reports Gillespie. He has been arrested.

The Israeli military began handing over positions to the United Nations early Thursday, stepping up its withdrawal from southern Lebanon. More than 50 percent of the areas Israel holds have been transferred already, the military said.

The Lebanese government ordered the army to "insure respect" for the Blue Line, the U.N.-demarcated border between Lebanon and Israel, and "apply the existing laws with regard to any weapons outside the authority of the Lebanese state."

That provision does not require Hezbollah to give up its arms, but rather directs them to keep them off the streets.

That's the opposite of what the U.N. resolution calls on them to do, says Pizzey.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is keeping its commitments in the U.N. cease-fire resolution and expects Lebanon to do the same.

"That resolution clearly calls for the creation of a Hezbollah-free zone south of the Litani River, and anything less would mean that the resolution is not being implemented," he said.

Hezbollah's top official in south Lebanon issued the strongest indication yet that the guerrillas would not disarm in the region or withdraw, but rather melt into the local population and hide their weapons.

Hariri, the son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a top U.S. ally, was responding to a speech Tuesday by the Syrian leader in which he accused Lebanon's anti-Syrian groups of allying themselves with Israel, which bombarded Lebanon for 34 days.

"The speech was an incitement for sedition in Lebanon. The Syrian president has hurt his position, Syria's and Lebanon's," he said in his speech to supporters.

The United States has accused Syria of meddling in Lebanese affairs, and the U.N. Security Council has demanded Syria stop interfering.

Praising the Lebanese army for moving into south Lebanon, Hariri said "the history of Israel is a black history, a hateful one, of destruction ... Israeli attacks can destroy Lebanon (physically) but will not touch Lebanese unity."

Regev, when asked about the Hariri speech, said: "Too often in the Arab world, people think that political legitimacy is attained by bashing Israel."

Meanwhile, the Lebanese death toll from the conflict continued to rise, as rescue workers pulled more bodies from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli forces. Two Lebanese farmers were killed Thursday when one of them stepped on a land mine in a banana plantation in south Lebanon, security officials said.