Tehran: Iran has warned that if Israel does not end its “evil deeds” in southern Lebanon, it will face a “cruel” response from the Iranian armed forces, the warning came after Iran and the United States reached a peace deal that is set to be signed later this week.
In an official statement, Iran’s main military command, the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, said that since US President Donald Trump declared an end to the war, the Israeli army had violated the ceasefire in southern Lebanon 84 times and continued to “commit crimes against and kill the oppressed Lebanese people.”
Iran, the United States and Pakistan announced on Monday morning the termination of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending the war in all directions in the West Asian region, including Lebanon. Iran and the United States are scheduled to officially sign the memorandum of understanding in Switzerland on Friday.
Speaking at a meeting with foreign diplomats in Tehran on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi described ending the war in Lebanon as an “indivisible” part of the Iran-US peace deal, saying that from Tehran’s perspective, the two parties to the deal are the US and Israel on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other.
“Ending the war also includes ending the Israeli occupation. Ending the war is incomplete without the Israeli withdrawal from the Lebanese territories it occupied in the war,” he said. Araghchi made the remarks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference on Monday that the Israeli military would remain in the “security zones” it controls in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip as long as necessary.
Edited by Chouk Bora
