Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that Israeli forces will not withdraw from southern Lebanon, despite Lebanon’s inclusion in the peace deal between the United States and Iran announced Sunday by President Donald Trump.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are leading a clear policy that determines that the IDF will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, without any time limit, to protect the border and Israeli communities from there against jihadist elements,” Katz said in his statement on Monday.
“We will not compromise on Israel’s security interests and the protection of our citizens, and we will not withdraw from the security zones,” he said. “If Iran attacks Israel because of the events in Lebanon, we will strike it with full force.”
Katz said Israel will proceed with its plan to clear the buffer zone of civilian residents, and then “all terror infrastructure, above and below ground, including the houses in the contact-line villages that served as terror outposts, will be destroyed.”
“We oppose an IDF withdrawal from Lebanon – despite all current and future pressures,” he said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu made these points clear to US President Trump and to other senior American officials, and I also made this clear yesterday to US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately comment on the U.S.-Iran deal, but other members of the Israeli government were highly critical of its provisions regarding Lebanon.
“Trump’s agreement does not bind us,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. “Israel is not subordinate to the United States. We are an independent and sovereign country.”
“We are not partners to this agreement, which does not safeguard our security. We must not withdraw from any territory that our fighters have captured,” he said.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, now a leading candidate to succeed Netanyahu and return to the prime minister’s office, criticized Netanyahu for not achieving his goals in Lebanon quickly enough.
Bennett said Netanyahu has embroiled Israel in wars of “stagnation and attrition” in theaters like Lebanon and Gaza, where Netanyahu’s administration was “incapable of achieving a decisive victory.”
Bennett and other opposition leaders said Israel should remain focused on dismantling the Iranian regime and its Hezbollah proxies in Lebanon, no matter what Trump’s peace deal says, and should have no part of any deal that fails to address Israel’s security interests.
President Trump was reportedly upset with the Israelis for launching airstrikes on Hezbollah-infested suburbs of Lebanon while the U.S. was in the final stages of closing its deal with Iran. Trump said he told Netanyahu not to launch any additional strikes, and promised in return to “ask Iran not to respond with missile fire toward Israel,” as reported by Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Iran was insistent that Lebanon be included in any peace deal with the United States, thus protecting Tehran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah from further Israeli action.
Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency reported on Monday that Iran called off its planned missile attack on Israel only because Trump, speaking through mediators in Qatar, offered “last-minute concessions, including speeding up the end of the naval blockade.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that Lebanon’s “national sovereignty” – meaning Iran’s ability to control Lebanon through Hezbollah – was “one of the main pillars of the memorandum of understanding agreed with the United States.”
“No agreement will be sustainable without comprehensive guarantees of Lebanon’s security and territorial independence,” Baghaei said.
“I’d like to express my condolences to the entire Lebanese people. We adopt our decision according to certain measurements because of these terrorist attacks from the Zionist entity against Lebanon,” he added.
“Israel was not directly involved in the negotiations,” the left-wing outlet New York Times (NYT) reported on Sunday. “Initial details suggest that the agreement does nothing to curb Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, or its funding of regional proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen, who have attacked Israel with their own arsenals.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that he hoped the U.S.-Iran agreement would yield “concrete measures that put a definitive end to the cycle of violence.”
“I welcome what this memorandum contains regarding respect for Lebanon’s particularity and the recognition that Lebanon’s stability and security are an integral part of any serious effort to establish stability in the region, after the sacrifices and heavy burdens borne by the Lebanese during the past period,” Aoun said.
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