{"id":85928,"date":"2026-04-27T14:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/85928\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:50:19","slug":"lebanon-and-hezbollah-at-odds-over-peace-talks-with-israel-as-strikes-continue-despite-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/85928\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon and Hezbollah at odds over peace talks with Israel as strikes continue despite ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lebanon’s president has accused Hezbollah of hypocrisy, as the Iranian-backed militant group demanded the government walk away from peace talks with Israel.<\/p>\n

The two countries agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the United States, and announced by Donald Trump, during face-to-face meetings it hosted between government representatives.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah \u2014 the group involved in the war \u2014 is not a party to those talks, and said the state did not have the authority to pursue such a deal.<\/p>\n

The leader of the group, Naim Qassem accused the Lebanese Government of being “stubborn” and having “rushed into a gratuitous and humiliating concession.”<\/p>\n

“We categorically reject direct negotiations,” Mr Qassem said.<\/p>\n

“Let those in power know that their actions will benefit neither Lebanon nor themselves.<\/p>\n

“What the Israeli-American enemy demands of them is beyond their control, and what they demand from them will not be granted.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Israeli soldiers walk amid destroyed buildings in southern Lebanon. (Reuters: Shir Torem)<\/p>\n

The group which is considered a terrorist organisation under Australian law, opened fire on Israel in early March, days after the US and Israel began their war against the Iranian regime. Prior to this Israel had regularly fired on Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire.<\/p>\n

The Lebanese Government accused it of dragging the country into a war, solely to support its backers in Tehran.<\/p>\n

That was a position echoed by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, after Mr Qassem’s remarks.<\/p>\n

Israel demands residents evacuate villages in southern Lebanon<\/a><\/p>\n

Israeli forces have demanded residents in seven villages north of Lebanon’s Litani River to evacuate.<\/p>\n

“Some hold us accountable for deciding to go to negotiations on the pretext of the lack of national consensus,” he posted on social media platform X.<\/p>\n

“I ask: when you went to war, did you first obtain national consensus?”<\/p>\n

“Before the negotiations even began, some started directing arrows of criticism and accusations of treason, and claiming that we are going to the negotiations in surrender.<\/p>\n

“We say to these: wait for the negotiations to begin and judge the outcome.”Ceasefire in name only<\/p>\n

The 10-day-old ceasefire in Lebanon appeared to exist in name only, as Israel continued to hit claimed Hezbollah targets in the south of the country and the Bekaa Valley in the east, accusing Hezbollah of breaching the fragile truce.<\/p>\n

At least 14 people were killed in the Israeli strikes on Sunday, with more attacks on Monday. One Israeli soldier was killed and another six injured in a retaliatory drone attack.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has insisted it is Israel acting as the aggressor, particularly as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue to occupy land in southern Lebanon seized during its invasion of the country.<\/p>\n

Israeli media reported on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding briefing with senior security and military officials about “breaches of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 2,500 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since early March, including hundreds of women and children.<\/p>\n

That toll, authorities said, undercut Israel’s insistence it was only targeting Hezbollah fighters and facilities in its strikes.<\/p>\n

Killing of journalists highlights the impunity with which Israel acts<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Israel Defense Forces have committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military since 1992.<\/p>\n

The current situation is following a similar trajectory to the last ceasefire agreed to between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024.<\/p>\n

Israel accused Hezbollah of repeatedly breaching the deal by refusing to withdraw its forces form southern Lebanon, from the Israeli border to the Litani River.<\/p>\n

In turn, the Lebanese Army was meant to move into those areas to take control and disarm Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Israel insisted that never occurred, and launched almost daily strikes inside Lebanese territory to counter perceived threats from Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

The militant group, in turn, accused Israel of deliberately breaching the deal and refusing to totally withdraw from Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lebanon’s president has accused Hezbollah of hypocrisy, as the Iranian-backed militant group demanded the government walk away from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[30641,41,3065,100,423,37,1663,10857,849,93,23579,30640,1441,2405,10122,3435,10383],"class_list":{"0":"post-85928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-bekka-valley","9":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","10":"tag-ceasefire","11":"tag-hezbollah","12":"tag-idf","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-israel-defense-forces","15":"tag-israeli-occupation","16":"tag-joseph-aoun","17":"tag-lebanon","18":"tag-lebanon-ceasefire","19":"tag-lebanon-occupation","20":"tag-naim-qassem","21":"tag-peace","22":"tag-peace-talks","23":"tag-south-lebanon","24":"tag-talks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116477232579916566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85928","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=85928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}