Iran declares support for Hezbollah with wider peace deal in doubt

Tehran links any US-brokered peace deal to a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, complicating regional truce efforts

Iran has reaffirmed support for its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and demanded that Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon, underscoring complications facing an interim deal to end the broader conflict ??between the US and Iran. Tehran has made a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah a condition for any peace deal with Washington to resolve the regional war, now in its fourth month, and restart shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. 

The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel erupted at the start of March, two days after the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran. Hezbollah said its actions were in support of Tehran. 

 

“This war will end only when it ends in Lebanon as well,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Lebanese TV station Al ​Mayadeen late on Thursday. 

“The end of the war on Lebanon must be ​accompanied by the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they have occupied,” he said. The comments came after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected a US-brokered pact between Israel and the Lebanese government to halt the ​fighting in Lebanon. The deal did not provide for an Israeli withdrawal and Hezbollah had not been party to the negotiations. Israel has kept up strikes in southern Lebanon, and has said its forces would not withdraw or halt operations in the country amid increasing friction with the US. Hezbollah said on Friday it had carried out two attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon, including near the recently captured Beaufort Castle.  

Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said Hezbollah had “made great sacrifices in the recent war and it is our ​ally. Therefore, we support Hezbollah and remain firmly committed to our obligations toward it.” In comments reported by the semi-official Mehr news agency, Rezaei cautioned Israel against following through on threats to resume strikes against Beirut, the Lebanese capital. 

“Today we ‌again warn this sinister regime to leave Lebanon. They should know that Lebanon will be an inseparable part of any agreement and any ceasefire,” he said. Lebanon’s parliament speaker and Hezbollah ​ally Nabih Berri said on Friday he would agree to the withdrawal of the Iran-backed group from southern Lebanon if Israeli troops simultaneously left territory they occupy in the country. 

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun on Friday accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards of using Lebanon as a “bargaining chip” in negotiations with the US, telling CNN this was “unacceptable”. Along with Lebanon, residents of Gaza, northern Israel and Kuwait have all been under fire this week, despite US-arranged ceasefires that President Donald Trump said involved “shooting in ‌a more moderate manner”, rather than a total halt to fighting. On Friday, Iran’s navy ​said it had fired warning shots at US destroyers in the Gulf of Oman to counter “maritime ‌mischief and harassment and the hijacking of commercial vessels and oil tankers”. Earlier, US forces said they had boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean and that they would continue to block “vessels providing ??material support to Iran”. The US Central Command denied Iran’s claims.