President Donald Trump is facing a choice between ending the war with Iran, which is hurting his popularity and economy, and continuing his deference to Israel.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made it clear on Tuesday that Trump can’t have it both ways.
After the assertions of the Israeli leaders that they would not end the occupation of LebanonAraghchi reiterated that the memorandum of understanding virtually signed by the US and Iran called in no uncertain terms that “the war will end everywhere, on all fronts, including Lebanon.”
“Because of the relationship between the war in Lebanon and Israel’s aggression in southern Lebanon and the war in Iran, these two fronts – Iran and Lebanon – are quite connected to each other,” he said.
“The end of the war will be the end of the occupation,” he continued. And without withdrawing and withdrawing from the occupied Lebanese territories, then there will be no end to the war.
“So any military attack by the Zionist entity against Lebanon will never be accepted,” he said. “The continuation of the Israeli occupation of the Lebanese territories is a violation of the memorandum of understanding”.
It was a shot across the arc from Tehran after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ALLEGED A day earlier Israeli forces would remain in Lebanon “as long as necessary” regardless of any US-Iran deal.
“We created deep security zones around the state of Israel,” he said, referring to the roughly 230-square-mile occupation zone where Israel has forcibly expelled more than 1 million Lebanese civilians and are systematically broken dozens of villages. “I want to make it clear: we will remain in these security zones to protect our country.”
Other ministers were even more open. Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said stated that “Trump’s agreement does not bind us. Israel is not dependent on United States. We are an independent and sovereign country.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the occupation would continue “without any time limit” while the villages would continue to be “cleansed of the local inhabitants”. He said that there will be no withdrawal “despite all existing pressures” from the US, adding that, “we are committed only to our citizens and to the security of the State of Israel.”
Trump has regularly pushed back on Israel’s preferences and sided with Netanyahu after he scuttled previous cease-fire talks. But during a press conference at the Group of Seven summit in France on Tuesday, Trump struck a markedly different tone with his stubborn ally.
The president said he “didn’t like it.” attack Netanyahu launched against the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday, where Israeli forces bombed a five-story apartment building, killing three people. “I saw that attack. I saw where that bomb went,” he said, describing the attack as “vicious” and “very big.”
“You don’t need to tear down an apartment every time you look for someone,” he said, making perhaps his strongest criticism ever of Israel’s rampant attacks on civilians. infrastructure. He continued that “if Israel can’t do the job without killing everyone else, Syria must do the job” to fight Hezbollah.
“Without the United States, there would be no Israel,” he continued. “Without me, there would be no Israel, because no other president was willing to do what I did.”
Referring to Netanyahu, Trump said: “I’ve had a great relationship with Bibi, but now Bibi needs to be more responsible about Lebanon.” He added that the continued occupation “casts a negative light on the big deal, and that is the Iran deal.”
Commentators noted that this is not the first time a US president has vented his anger at Netanyahu, only to have nothing materially change.
Noting Trump’s earlier description of Netanyahu as a “very difficult guy” after he tried to blow up the truce talks on Sunday, Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human rights Look, said“The question is: why does Trump ease this obstacle by continuing to provide Israel with weapons and military aid?”
Zeteo News Editor Mehdi Hasan said: “Trump’s insanely erratic nature is such that he can go from sounding like the most aggressive, pro-Israel president one day to the most diabolical, anti-Israel president the next. That’s why listening to Trump is pointless; what matters is paying attention to what he does.”
