Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem both issued calls on Tuesday for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, which Iran says is required for a full implementation of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding.
As a fifth round of talks between Israel and Lebanon began in Washington on Tuesday, Aoun said that he rejected Israel’s occupation and other foreign interference, seen as a reference to Iran and its support for Hezbollah.
“We accept nothing less than an end to the Israeli occupation and at the same time, the fall of foreign tutelage, because our only option is our national sovereignty and our sole wager is on the Lebanese state,” Aoun said.
The Lebanese president also expressed hope that the talks in Washington will lead to “the full restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty over every grain of its soil.”
In his statement, Qassem said that Hezbollah’s resistance has reached the stage of “breaking the Israeli project” and that Israel would have no choice but to leave southern Lebanon.
“We now have a ceasefire. The withdrawal must take place according to a timetable. Israel has no choice but to fully withdraw from all Lebanese territory, without retaining an inch,” he said, adding that once Israel withdraws, the Lebanese army can deploy south of the Litani River.
During talks between US and Iranian officials in Switzerland on Sunday, the two sides agreed to establish a “deconfliction cell” aimed at ending the war in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to insist that Israeli troops will not withdraw from Lebanon and will maintain “freedom of action.” Israel has reduced the intensity of its attacks in Lebanon, though the IDF killed at least two people in the country on Tuesday, which Hezbollah slammed as a “truce violation.”
According to Al Jazeera, Mahmoud Qamati, deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, warned that Hezbollah would respond to Israeli violations and wouldn’t return to a “pre-war situation” when Israel launched near-daily attacks in Lebanon and Hezbollah didn’t respond.
Israel constantly violated a November 2024 ceasefire deal, killing hundreds before the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran on February 28 of this year. Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, marking the first Hezbollah attack on Israel since the November 2024 deal was signed. Israel used it as a pretext to dramatically escalate in Lebanon, and its invasion and strikes have killed more than 4,000 Lebanese since March 2.
