{"id":1054847,"date":"2026-06-28T04:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1054847\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T04:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:39:19","slug":"pm-iran-hezbollah-to-have-no-role-in-lebanon-under-deal-israel-can-maintain-security-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1054847\/","title":{"rendered":"PM: Iran, Hezbollah to have \u2018no role in Lebanon\u2019 under deal, Israel can maintain security zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Friday\u2019s framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon a \u201chistoric achievement for Israel\u201d that opens the door to an eventual \u201cpeace agreement between the two nations\u201d while still allowing the Israel Defense Forces to remain in the country and combat threats from Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu made the remarks in a wide-ranging press conference on Saturday night, in which he also discussed the upcoming election as well as the recently signed memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, which kicked off 60 days of talks between those countries to permanently end the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

Israel is not a party to those talks, and the terms of the MOU have sparked profound concern in Israel because they mandate a ceasefire in Lebanon and free up money for Iran without it agreeing to defined concessions on its nuclear program. Netanyahu said Israel was sending a delegation to Washington, DC, to discuss the MOU, and claimed that the war created the conditions for the Iranian regime to fall.<\/p>\n

The framework agreement with Lebanon, reached Friday in US-backed talks in Washington, includes a pilot effort in which Lebanese soldiers take control of some small areas currently held by Israeli troops, and includes a process aimed at disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group. Hezbollah has rejected the agreement.<\/p>\n

At the press conference, Netanyahu called the deal \u201ca major blow\u201d to Iran and to Hezbollah. Contrary to Iranian demands that Israel withdraw from south Lebanon, the prime minister said the framework accord allows the IDF to maintain its buffer zone there for as long as it needs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to hold it until Hezbollah and other terror groups are disarmed,\u201d he said, \u201cuntil there is no longer a threat to Israel from Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the accord, he claimed, Israel, Lebanon and the US \u201care essentially telling Iran, \u2018This is none of your business. You have no status here, no involvement and no role. Not you, not Hezbollah, not any terror group.’\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, however, the Lebanese president\u2019s office appeared to undercut Netanyahu\u2019s statement, saying that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told US President Donald Trump he is committed to implementing the agreement but hopes the US will pressure Israel to withdraw from the south.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\t(From L-R) Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, US State Department Counselor Dan Holler and Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh sign a framework agreement for a partial IDF withdrawal from south Lebanon at the State Department on June 26, 2026. (Screen capture\/YouTube)<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that Israel would be withdrawing from two small areas it currently holds, in a pilot project for disarming Hezbollah and transferring the territory to the Lebanese Armed Forces. Showing the areas on a map, he said one is completely outside the security zone, and the other is on the edge of the zone in an area the IDF no longer needs to hold.<\/p>\n

Thus, he explained, Israel is retaining the entire security zone area that it needs to protect northern Israel.<\/p>\n

He reiterated at another point that he is \u201cstanding firm\u201d on maintaining the security zone, and that he spoke several times recently with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who he says \u201chas effectively given the United States\u2019 backing to this concept of a security zone that prevents Iran and Hezbollah from attacking us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, he said, Israel retains the freedom of action \u201cto thwart any threats to IDF soldiers\u201d in Lebanon, including what are defined as \u201cemerging\u201d threats. He said he met with Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to ensure that that provision would be emphasized as a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur freedom of action is the freedom to thwart any threats to IDF soldiers. That is a clear directive [to IDF soldiers]. I have said it and repeated it: If you see a threat, act. Not only do you have the right to act \u2014 you have an obligation to act against an immediate threat,\u201d the premier said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIDF APCs parked in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ariel Schalit)<\/p>\n

He said 200 Hezbollah terrorists had been killed over the past two weeks due to such directives, including in incidents where there was not \u201can immediate threat in the sense of something right next to you,\u201d but where soldiers identified emerging threats, such as when a group of troops \u201cspotted seven [Hezbollah] terrorists entering a building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu has reiterated that soldiers are free to respond to both immediate and emerging threats in recent days, in light of the Iran MOU declaring a ceasefire in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Not everyone in Israel is pleased about the framework agreement with Lebanon, despite Netanyahu\u2019s praise for it.<\/p>\n

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir demanded that Netanyahu bring the deal to the cabinet for a vote, calling it a \u201cmajor mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we will remain in most of the territory [of the buffer zone] for the moment, the government of Lebanon won\u2019t disarm Hezbollah,\u201d Ben Gvir, who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in a statement on Saturday night. \u201cOnly IDF soldiers will destroy Hezbollah, no one else will do it for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0PM says he\u2019s sending delegation to DC to discuss Iran deal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Netanyahu added that he intends to send a delegation to Washington to clarify Israel\u2019s security interests regarding the nuclear provisions of any US-Iran deal. Negotiations over such a deal began earlier this month following the signing of the MoU, though an exchange of fire between the countries on Saturday appeared to imperil the talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said from the outset that we were not a party to the agreement between the United States and Iran. But that does not mean we do not have interests,\u201d Netanyahu said during the press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have interests, and we will make them known. Incidentally, even on the central issue \u2014 the nuclear issue \u2014 I intend to send a delegation to Washington to clarify what Israel\u2019s interests are,\u201d he said, without elaborating on the timing of the delegation\u2019s departure, which officials will take part, or who they will meet.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the end of the press conference, Netanyahu touted Israel\u2019s military achievements against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and in Iran, asserting that Jerusalem \u201ccreated conditions\u201d for the regime in Tehran to eventually fall.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA Hezbollah supporter stands next of a banner that shows portraits of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, left, and Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, as she commemorates Ashura in Dahiyeh, Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs, Lebanon, on June 26, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hussein Malla)<\/p>\n

Repeating a claim he made last week, Netanyahu said that Israel \u201ccreated conditions\u201d for regime change in Iran through the US-Israeli campaign there, saying the current circumstances \u201cwill ultimately enable the Iranian people to do what I believe will happen: bring down this regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will not happen in a single day. There are demonstrations in Iran today \u2014 today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It was not clear, however, what he was referring to. There have not been recent reports of major, organized mass demonstrations inside Iran, though there are reports of some localized protests against the government, primarily by university students protesting wartime education policies.<\/p>\n

In Gaza, Netanyahu said the IDF \u201cdismantled most of Hamas\u2019s military capabilities,\u201d adding that the recent assassination of Hamas leader Izz al-Din al-Haddad several weeks ago drew \u201cnot even a single bullet, not a bullet, not a missile,\u201d in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue, their civilian capabilities remain, and we still have work to do,\u201d he said of the Gazan terror group, \u201cbut it is an enormous achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear exactly what the premier means by \u201ccivilian capabilities,\u201d though Hamas controls a portion of the Strip and most of its population. Its gunmen still patrol the streets of Gaza\u2019s cities and it has refused to agree to any disarmament plan that would see it give up its remaining arsenal.<\/p>\n

Jacob Magid and Reuters contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Friday\u2019s framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon a \u201chistoric achievement for Israel\u201d that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1054848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[262769,289780,6505,836,289781,279862,12,26],"class_list":["post-1054847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-2026-israel-hezbollah-conflict","tag-2026-us-iran-memorandum-of-understanding","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-hezbollah","tag-irans-nuclear-program","tag-lebanese-armed-forces","tag-news","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116825895006345479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1054847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1054848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1054847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1054847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1054847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}