The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced support for the United States’ decision to halt strikes on Iran, but explicitly stated that the two-week truce would not extend to Israel’s ongoing military operations in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
In a statement posted on X on Wednesday, Netanyahu affirmed Israel’s backing for US President Donald Trump’s initiatives aimed at ensuring “Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile and terror threat to America, Israel, Iran\u2019s Arab neighbors and the world.” However, he underscored that the announced two-week ceasefire “does not include Lebanon.”<\/p>\n
Netanyahu’s declaration followed an earlier announcement by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who claimed that the US, Iran, and their allies had “agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere,” effective immediately.<\/p>\n
Contrasting Sharif’s statement, Lebanon\u2019s National News Agency reported that the Israeli military continued its assaults on southern parts of the country. Israeli forces reportedly bombed the southern town of Srifa in the Tyre region and issued an evacuation warning for a nearby building. The Lebanese army, on Wednesday, cautioned citizens against returning to the country’s south. In light of “regional developments and reports circulating about a ceasefire,” the army urged people “to wait before returning to southern villages and towns and to avoid approaching areas where Israeli occupation forces have advanced\u2026 since they may be exposing themselves to the ongoing Israeli attacks.”<\/p>\n
Lebanon became entangled in the US and Israel\u2019s conflict with Iran on March 2, after Tehran-aligned Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel. Hezbollah stated these attacks were in retaliation for Israel\u2019s killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, the first day of the war, as well as Israel\u2019s frequent violations of a ceasefire agreed upon in Lebanon in November 2024. This earlier truce had been established after over a year of cross-border skirmishes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters, which erupted following Israel\u2019s launch of its war in Gaza in October 2023.<\/p>\n
According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 have resulted in over 1,500 deaths and displaced more than 1.2 million people. The Israeli military has also initiated an invasion of southern Lebanon, aiming to secure more territory for what it terms a “buffer zone.”<\/p>\n
There has been no immediate reaction from Hezbollah or the Lebanese government regarding Netanyahu\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera\u2019s Zeina Khodr noted that Hezbollah\u2019s involvement in the US-Israel conflict with Iran has broadened the scope of the confrontation, tying down Israel on multiple fronts. Khodr explained, “Hezbollah\u2019s calculation is that it has more political leverage when it joins Iran in possible negotiations, because Hezbollah has been criticising the Lebanese government for failing to get Israel to agree to the terms of the last ceasefire back in 2024.” She added that Israel had not only continued its near-daily attacks but also refused to withdraw from southern Lebanon, release detainees, or permit displaced individuals to return home.<\/p>\n
The crucial question now, Khodr highlighted, is whether the Israel-Hezbollah front will be addressed in the forthcoming negotiations between Iran and the US. She quoted Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who “himself says he believes that Iran has been running the military campaign that Hezbollah has launched in southern Lebanon and that\u2019s why the negotiations over the next two weeks will be critical and crucial for Lebanon.” Khodr concluded, “Because at the end of the day, Israel wants security guarantees. And that is something the Lebanese government, the Lebanese state cannot give.”<\/p>\n
#MiddleEastConflict #IsraelLebanon #USIranTensions #CeasefireTalks #NetanyahuStatement #Hezbollah #GazaWarImpact #RegionalSecurity #Diplomacy #LebanonCrisis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced support for the United States’ decision to halt strikes on Iran, but explicitly stated that the two-week truce would not extend to Israel’s ongoing military operations in Lebanon. In a statement posted on X on Wednesday, Netanyahu affirmed Israel’s backing for US President Donald Trump’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}