Senior Lebanese official slams US-brokered deal with Israel, warns of divisions
Berri dismisses Lebanon-Israel agreement as 'DIKTATS'
Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key ally of Hezbollah, today (29 June) slammed a US-brokered agreement between Lebanon and Israel, warning it could lead to attempts to divide Lebanese and said it would not be implemented.
Israeli officials suggested the agreement would move forward in the coming days, but there were no immediate reports of any aspects of the deal being implemented on the ground.
In comments to Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper, Berri described Iran-US talks as the only realistic opportunity to secure Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and that any attempt to separate Lebanon from the US-Iran track would prolong Israeli occupation.
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Israel has occupied a swathe of southern Lebanon in a war with Hezbollah that began on 2 March, when the group opened fire at Israel after Iran came under US-Israeli attack.
The Lebanon war has been a central part of diplomacy towards ending the wider US-Iran conflict. Tehran has insisted on a Lebanon ceasefire as part of its interim deal with Washington, while the US has sponsored separate talks between the Lebanese and Israeli governments, which Beirut has attended despite Hezbollah's objections.
Israel has praised the agreement, signed by the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington on Friday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying it allows Israeli forces to continue to occupy southern Lebanon if Hezbollah does not disarm.
Hezbollah, which has demanded Beirut quit its face-to-face talks with the Israeli government, has rejected the deal as a surrender to Israel.
Berri dismisses Lebanon-Israel agreement as 'DIKTATS'
The agreement foresees Lebanon's army taking over territory pending verified disarmament of non-state groups -- a reference to Hezbollah -- saying this would enable Israel's military "to progressively redeploy out of" Lebanon. Lebanon's army would gradually assume responsibility in "pilot zones".
A senior Israeli official said the pilot zone process under which troops would withdraw would begin "immediately", without elaborating. A second Israeli official said the "redeployment" from the pilot zones might begin in the coming days.
The zones, according to maps published by the Israeli government, include the Lebanese villages of Froun, Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh and Ghandouriyeh.
Two Israeli officials said separately that these areas had been taken by Israeli forces recently, without specifying exactly when, to use as leverage in negotiations.
A satellite image of Froun, taken on 24 June by Airbus, showed destruction to large parts of the village.
Berri, head of the Shi'ite Muslim Amal Movement, described the agreement as "diktats". Al-Akhbar quoted Berri as saying the most dangerous aspect of the agreement was not only its political content, but "the potential for it to incite internal divisions and draw the Lebanese into a confrontation among themselves".
The agreement "won't be implemented", al-Akhbar cited him as saying.
The intensity of hostilities in Lebanon in the south has abated this month, as Iran has insisted on its demand for a Lebanon ceasefire in talks with the US, and as Israel has scaled back attacks in Lebanon at Washington's behest.
The US-Iran interim agreement requires both countries and their allies to end military operations on all fronts including Lebanon. Iran is also seeking Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said on 16 June that a full end to the war would not be achieved without Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will keep its troops in the southern 'security' belt it is occupying for as long as is necessary to prevent Hezbollah invading or firing at Israeli border towns.
Israel strikes Hezbollah targets
The Lebanese administration headed by the Maronite Christian President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a Sunni Muslim, sought face-to-face talks with Israel early in the war despite objections from Shi'ite Hezbollah, reflecting divisions over the group's decision to join the conflict.
The Beirut government has pursued a policy aimed at securing Hezbollah's disarmament since last year, after the group was badly weakened during a previous war with Israel in 2024.
Aoun, in a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Saturday, said he hoped Washington would press Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
Israeli forces seized a self-declared security zone stretching into southern Lebanon during the war, citing the need to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks.
The Israeli military said it destroyed a 200-metre (656-ft)-long Hezbollah tunnel in the south overnight. It also said it had struck three Hezbollah command centres in southern Lebanon on Sunday in response to violations of a ceasefire by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah on Monday said it has adhered to the ceasefire "until now", and it reserved the right "to defend its homeland and its people".
