Iranian officials said Israel must leave southern Lebanon for the U.S.-Iran war framework to fully end hostilities, while Israeli leaders said they will keep forces in security zones for as long as needed.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A dispute over Israeli forces in southern Lebanon has become one of the most significant unresolved issues in the U.S.-Iran framework meant to end the war, with Tehran insisting that any final agreement requires an Israeli withdrawal and Israeli leaders saying they will not leave security zones along their borders.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday that continued Israeli operations in Lebanon, or Israel’s continued presence in Lebanese territory seized during the conflict, would violate the memorandum of understanding negotiated between Washington and Tehran.
The agreement, brokered with Pakistan’s mediation, is expected to be formally signed Friday in Geneva. U.S. and Iranian officials have described it as a framework to halt hostilities and begin broader talks on Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions relief and regional issues, though the full text has not been released.
“The end of the war in Lebanon is an inseparable part of the complete end of the war,” Araghchi said during a meeting with foreign diplomats in Tehran, according to remarks carried by Iranian state-run Press TV.
“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories they occupied during this war, the war will have not been fully brought to an end,” he said.
Araghchi’s comments appeared to go beyond what U.S. officials have publicly described. He characterized the memorandum as an agreement between “the United States and Israel on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other,” and said future Israeli attacks in Lebanon or a continued Israeli military presence there after the agreement takes effect would be treated by Tehran as violations.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who helped mediate the talks, previously said the agreement called for ending military operations “on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” U.S. officials, however, have said little publicly about any requirement for Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory and have maintained that Israel retains the right to defend itself.
Israel has rejected any interpretation of the agreement that would require it to pull forces out of Lebanon.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that the Israel Defense Forces would remain in security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza indefinitely to protect Israeli communities from jihadist threats.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are leading a clear policy that determines that the IDF will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, without any time limit, to protect the border and Israeli communities from there against jihadist elements,” Katz said Monday.
“We will not compromise on Israel’s security interests and the protection of our citizens, and we will not withdraw from the security zones,” Katz said. “If Iran attacks Israel because of the events in Lebanon, we will strike it with full force.”
Katz said Israel will continue clearing a buffer zone of civilian residents and then destroy “all terror infrastructure, above and below ground, including the houses in the contact-line villages that served as terror outposts.”
“We oppose an IDF withdrawal from Lebanon – despite all current and future pressures,” Katz said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu made these points clear to US President Trump and to other senior American officials, and I also made this clear yesterday to US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.”
Netanyahu also said Israeli forces would remain in what he called “deep security zones” for as long as necessary.
“We will remain in the security zones for as long as it is required to defend our country,” Netanyahu said during a televised address on June 15.
“Because after October seventh, I established a simple principle: Israel will not allow terror organizations to encamp on our borders; to tunnel into our territory; to prepare for a massacre close to our citizens,” Netanyahu said.
Other Israeli officials sharply criticized any agreement that could limit Israeli operations in Lebanon. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Israel would not be bound by Trump’s deal with Iran.
“Trump’s agreement does not bind us,” Ben Gvir said. “Israel is not subordinate to the United States. We are an independent and sovereign country.”
“We are not partners to this agreement, which does not safeguard our security. We must not withdraw from any territory that our fighters have captured,” he said.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, considered a possible future candidate to return to the prime minister’s office, criticized Netanyahu from another direction, saying the government had failed to achieve Israel’s goals in Lebanon quickly enough.
Bennett said Netanyahu had drawn Israel into wars of “stagnation and attrition” in Lebanon and Gaza, where he said the government was “incapable of achieving a decisive victory.”
Bennett and other opposition leaders said Israel should remain focused on dismantling Iran’s regime and Hezbollah’s operations in Lebanon, regardless of the terms of the U.S.-Iran framework. They said Israel should not accept any deal that fails to address its security concerns.
Trump, meanwhile, expressed frustration Tuesday with Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah while speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in France.
“They should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever, and when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that’s the deal with Iran,” Trump said.
Trump also criticized Israeli strikes in populated areas, saying the campaign against Hezbollah had caused too much collateral damage.
“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they’re not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you,” Trump said.
The president suggested Syria could potentially help contain Hezbollah.
“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah,” Trump said. “Because, to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job.”
Earlier, Trump criticized Israel for striking targets in Beirut while U.S. negotiators were working to finalize the memorandum with Iran. Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported that Trump told Netanyahu not to launch additional strikes and said he would “ask Iran not to respond with missile fire toward Israel.”
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Iran reportedly pushed for Lebanon to be included in the U.S.-Iran framework. Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency reported Monday that Tehran called off a planned missile attack on Israel only after Trump, working through Qatari mediators, offered “last-minute concessions, including speeding up the end of the naval blockade.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday that Lebanon’s “national sovereignty” was “one of the main pillars of the memorandum of understanding agreed with the United States.”
“No agreement will be sustainable without comprehensive guarantees of Lebanon’s security and territorial independence,” Baghaei said.
“I’d like to express my condolences to the entire Lebanese people. We adopt our decision according to certain measurements because of these terrorist attacks from the Zionist entity against Lebanon,” he added.
The New York Times reported Sunday that Israel was not directly involved in the negotiations and that early details indicated the agreement did not restrict Iran’s ballistic missile program or its support for groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
“Israel was not directly involved in the negotiations,” the New York Times reported. “Initial details suggest that the agreement does nothing to curb Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, or its funding of regional proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen, who have attacked Israel with their own arsenals.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that he hoped the U.S.-Iran agreement would lead to “concrete measures that put a definitive end to the cycle of violence.”
“I welcome what this memorandum contains regarding respect for Lebanon’s particularity and the recognition that Lebanon’s stability and security are an integral part of any serious effort to establish stability in the region, after the sacrifices and heavy burdens borne by the Lebanese during the past period,” Aoun said.
The competing statements leave a major question ahead of Friday’s expected signing: whether provisions involving Lebanon can be implemented if Israel refuses to withdraw from territory it says is necessary for its defense.
For now, Tehran is insisting that Lebanon’s war cannot be considered over while Israeli forces remain, while Israel says it will continue holding security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza regardless of pressure from Washington, Tehran or Beirut.
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