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\n Senior Iranian officials leveled up criticism over Israel swelling a military campaign in Lebanon this week, as parallel discussions to end violence in the region press on<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n A top military commander, Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, warned Israel must \u201cwithdraw to the positions it held before the start of the 40-day war\u201d in early March, when hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSupporting the resistance in Lebanon is the duty of all of us,\u201d Qaani, the commander of the elite Quds Force branch of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said, according to the semi-official agency, Tasnim.\n <\/p>\n \n The IRGC emphasized that stance in a separate statement on Thursday, cautioning that Israel \u201cmust immediately stop its attacks on the Lebanese people, withdraw without delay\u201d and \u201crecognize Lebanon\u2019s territorial integrity,\u201d Tasnim reported<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n On Monday, Iran\u2019s diplomatic lead, Mohammad Bagher Ghlibaf, insisted \u201cif the Israeli aggression against Lebanon continues\u201d Tehran would \u201chalt the path of negotiations.\u201d He threatened \u201cdirect confrontation with the enemy,\u201d in a post on X<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also declared, \u201cThe ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon,\u201d days before threatening retaliation if Israel strikes the Lebanese capital<\/a>, Beirut.\n <\/p>\n \n US President Donald Trump has voiced<\/a> his frustration over Israel\u2019s campaign in Lebanon as a seed of contention among Iranian authorities. Israeli, Lebanese and US government officials repeatedly stated truce extensions<\/a> to a frail deal first announced in mid-April \u2013 which Hezbollah is not party to. Both Israel and Hezbollah have launched attacks<\/a> since then.\n <\/p>\n \n It comes as Israeli forces pushed deeper into Lebanon on Sunday<\/a> beyond a stretch of occupied land towards Beaufort Castle, a high-lying fortress near the city of Nabatiyeh.\n <\/p>\n \n Over the weekend, troops seized the Crusader-era castle for the first time since Israel occupied Lebanon from 1982 to 2000. On Monday, Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained the military would keep striking<\/a> southern Lebanon \u201cas planned.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior Iranian officials leveled up criticism over Israel swelling a military campaign in Lebanon this week, as parallel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-476652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}