Iran said the emerging U.S.-Iran framework requires Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon, exposing a major dispute as fighting eases but continues.
Iran said Tuesday that Israeli forces cannot remain in southern Lebanon under an emerging U.S.-Iran agreement, setting up a direct dispute with Israel over whether the framework meant to halt the wider war also restricts Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said any Israeli troops still in southern Lebanon, or any Israeli strikes there after the deal takes effect, would amount to a violation of the agreement. Israeli officials have rejected that interpretation, saying Israel is not a party to the U.S.-Iran deal and will retain the ability to act against Hezbollah.
The disagreement matters because Lebanon has been the deadliest spillover of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Nearly 3,800 people have been killed and about 1.2 million uprooted by Israel’s offensive against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, according to figures cited in the supplied reporting. Fighting eased after Pakistan, a mediator between Washington and Tehran, announced Monday that a deal had been reached calling for the termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon. It did not stop entirely.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Tuesday that Israeli drone strikes killed at least four people in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon. The agency said Israeli strikes in the south have killed at least five people since Monday. Hezbollah also said Monday that it fired drones, rockets and artillery at Israeli military vehicles in southern Lebanon; the Israeli military said it intercepted rockets and reported no injuries from that fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Monday that Israeli troops would remain in southern Lebanon as long as needed, saying Iran had demanded a withdrawal but that he “stood firm.” Israeli officials have also said the military would maintain what they described as freedom of action in Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah attacks.
The U.S.-Iran framework remains preliminary and, in some accounts, procedurally unresolved. U.S. officials said President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had signed the memorandum of understanding, while a formal signing ceremony is still expected Friday in Switzerland. Public reporting in the supplied sources differs on the exact venue, with one account placing the ceremony in Geneva and another saying Swiss officials confirmed the Burgenstock resort near Lucerne.
The text of the memorandum has not been released. Vance told CNBC that the deal would extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire for 60 days and open talks on Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and other issues, but he said “a lot” of details remained to be worked out. Trump said at the G7 that the next round of talks could move quickly but could also take longer than the 60-day period.
Washington is also keeping pressure on Tehran during the talks. A senior U.S. official said the current U.S. force posture in the Middle East would remain in place during the negotiation period, despite hopes of eventually reducing it if a final deal is reached. U.S. officials also disputed Iranian accounts suggesting that billions of dollars in frozen funds were already being released, saying sanctions relief would depend on Iranian performance.
For Lebanon, the immediate test is whether the easing in violence holds while Israel and Iran press conflicting claims about what the U.S.-Iran framework requires. Local officials in southern Lebanon have warned displaced residents not to rush home, a sign that even a diplomatic opening has not yet translated into security on the ground.
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