Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi today said that the continued presence of Israeli forces in Lebanon constituted a violation of the recently agreed upon framework between the US and Iran, which is set to be formally signed on Friday.
Speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, Araghchi, whose remarks were televised on state media said, “When we reached a ceasefire, we declared it across all fronts, with particular emphasis on Lebanon … Any continued occupation of Lebanese territory will be regarded by us as a violation of the memorandum of understanding.”
As per the Iranian FM, Tehran considers Israel, and the Islamic Republic’s-backed Hezbollah militia, which Israel has been fighting for months in Lebanon’s southern areas, parties to the bilateral agreement.
While neither Jerusalem nor Washington consider Lebanon to be part of the agreement, and instead view it as an entirely separate issue, this issue nonetheless featured in a clause of the joint agreement.
“An important point I want to emphasise is that, in our view, the two parties to this memorandum of understanding are the United States and Israel on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other,” Araghchi told the diplomats.
On Monday, the IDF said that its forces would remain stationed in Lebanon, and have currently occupied a wide swathe of Lebanon’s southern section due to bulk of Hezbollah presence being focused there, thus forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate.
“Trump’s agreement does not bind us,” Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir argued Monday.
