Understanding Iran’s insistence on Lebanon’s inclusion in ceasefire with US

Iranian leaders continue to insist that any agreement with the United States must include a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah as well, but the fighting between them threatens to derail the whole peace process.

While the U.S. and Israel went to war against Iran on Feb. 28, Hezbollah, one of Iran’s top proxy forces in the region, resumed attacks on Israel days later, and now, with the U.S. and Iran on the verge of a deal that could pave the way to long-term stability, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could collapse the whole deal before it comes to fruition.

Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon “was not a condition of the deal,” a senior administration official said on Monday. “The deal is a ceasefire, and it will not be a one-way ceasefire, meaning that if Iran is not able to control Hezbollah, and if they attack Israeli positions or Israeli towns, Israel will have the right to defend themselves and respond.”

The Israeli Air Force reported on Monday that it intercepted numerous Hezbollah rockets launched at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Israeli leaders maintain they have the right to defend themselves against Hezbollah attacks and respond, but they angered President Donald Trump with a recent operation over the weekend as the U.S. and Iran closed in on a deal.

Trump said Israel’s Sunday operation on Beirut, which was in response to a Hezbollah attack, “should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a peace deal with Iran,” though he said, “Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process.”

By downplaying the Hezbollah attack, Trump indirectly raises the question of which attacks Israel should tolerate and which should warrant a response.

It’s not the first time Trump has criticized a recent Israeli response to a Hezbollah attack on northern Israel, which has resulted in rebukes from multiple Israeli leaders who pushed back on the notion that they should tolerate Hezbollah attacks.

Earlier this month, Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for an Israeli attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. It was the first time Iran had targeted Israel since the Trump-announced April 7 ceasefire, but it also demonstrated that Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, and Israel’s subsequent response, could be enough to restart a regional war.

Trump’s willingness to criticize Netanyahu for retaliating against Hezbollah unearths a divide among the two close partners. For Trump, he wants to get a deal done to end the war, whereas Netanyahu, who is also entering an election cycle, is more focused on “looking to preempt any and all threats anywhere close to its homeland,” Mona Yacoubian, a Middle East expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner.

“Iran is clearly seeking to assert its ability to project power via Hezbollah,” she said. “Israel, of course, by contrast, is looking to do exactly the opposite, which is to completely defang the threat posed by Iran, to include and maybe in some ways most importantly, that threat posed by Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

Iran has supported, trained, and funded Hezbollah for decades, so it could essentially serve as a front-line fighting force against Israel, given the country’s shared border with Lebanon.

The Trump administration has mediated multiple rounds of negotiations in the U.S. in recent months between the Israeli and Lebanese governments as they try to figure out a long-term strategy for peace and stability in the region. Back in April, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said, “We are no longer a card in anyone’s pocket, nor a field for anyone’s wars.”

The U.S. is looking to strengthen the Lebanese government and its relationship with its Israeli counterparts in an attempt to reduce Hezbollah’s hold on the country.

ISRAELI LEADERS REFUSE TO SUPPORT US-IRAN PEACE DEAL, SAY THEY MUST BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE ‘DISMANTLING’ HEZBOLLAH

“Post-Nasrallah, I think the IRGC directly controls Hezbollah,” David Schenker, a former State Department and Pentagon official, told the Washington Examiner, referencing former leader Hassan Nasrallah. “They are making operational decisions, and the decision to re-enter the war, to break the ceasefire, and basically invite the Israeli military occupation of Lebanon. I think that this firing into northern Israel, refusal to accept a ceasefire is basically a plan, an Iranian strategy, to increase tensions between the United States and Israel.”

The agreement that Vice President JD Vance said has been signed digitally, the text of which has not yet been released, is not believed to address Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile program, or its support for proxy groups, such as Hezbollah, across the Middle East.