Lebanon\u2019s powerful parliament speaker branded the Washington brokered accord a dictate, warning it could fracture national unity and likely fail to take effect.<\/p>\n
Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, sharply criticized the US-brokered deal between Lebanon and Israel, warning that it could undermine the country\u2019s unity and will not be implemented.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, Berri said that talks between Iran and the United States are the only real chance to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, and any attempt to separate Lebanon from this trajectory would lead to the continuation of Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n
Israel is holding part of southern Lebanon as part of the conflict with Hezbollah, which flared on March 2 after the group expressed solidarity with Iran and opened fire at Israel in response to U.S.-Israel strikes.<\/p>\n
The war in Lebanon has become a key element of diplomacy aimed at resolving the broader conflict between the United States and Iran. Iran insists on a Lebanese ceasefire as part of its interim package with Washington, while the United States acts as mediator in a separate set of talks between the Lebanese and Israeli governments, which Beirut joined despite Hezbollah\u2019s objections.<\/p>\n
Israel highly praised the agreement, signed by Lebanon\u2019s and Israel\u2019s ambassadors in Washington on Friday, after which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the document allows Israeli forces to continue the occupation of southern Lebanon if Hezbollah is not disarmed.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah, which had demanded Beirut halt direct talks with the Israeli government, rejected the deal as a surrender to Israel.<\/p>\n
BERRI REJECTS THE LEBANON\u2013ISRAEL DEAL AS \u201cDICTATION\u201d<\/p>\n
The agreement envisions the Lebanese army taking control of the territory subject to verified disarmament of irregular formations \u2013 notably Hezbollah \u2013 and this would enable the Israeli army to \u201cgradually withdraw\u201d from Lebanon. The agreement also provides that the Lebanese army will gradually assume responsibility in \u201cpilot zones.\u201d<\/p>\n
described the deal as \u2018dictation\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nabih Berri<\/p>\n
According to Berri, the most dangerous aspect of the deal is not only its political content but also the potential to provoke internal divisions and draw Lebanese into a confrontation among themselves.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese government, led by President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, had previously called for direct dialogue with Israel at the outset of the war, though this drew Hezbollah\u2019s opposition, reflecting deep disagreements over participating in the conflict in support of Iran.<\/p>\n
The Beirut administration continues its course toward disarming Hezbollah, a course that was renewed last year after the group suffered a significant setback during the previous war with Israel in 2024.<\/p>\n
After a phone call to U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, President Aoun expressed hope that Washington would persuade Israel to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Israeli forces control the security zone that stretches into southern Lebanon, established during the war to protect the north from Hezbollah attacks. The Israeli military said they destroyed a Hezbollah tunnel about 200 meters long in southern Lebanon last night, and also struck three Hezbollah command centers in southern Lebanon in response to Hezbollah\u2019s violations of the ceasefire.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Hezbollah said it was observing the ceasefire \u201cto date\u201d and reserved the right to \u201cdefend its homeland and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lebanon\u2019s powerful parliament speaker branded the Washington brokered accord a dictate, warning it could fracture national unity and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[100,55083,93,54850,11701,55082,42,33432],"class_list":["post-182525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lebanon","tag-hezbollah","tag-lebanese-unity","tag-lebanon","tag-lebanon-israel-deal","tag-nabih-berri","tag-nabih-berri-lebanon-israel-deal-hezbollah-us-diplomacy-lebanese-unity","tag-news","tag-us-diplomacy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116832750890270612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}