{"id":509423,"date":"2026-06-24T22:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/509423\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:02:18","slug":"israel-says-idf-is-staying-in-southern-lebanon-undermining-iran-peace-talks-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/509423\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel says IDF is staying in southern Lebanon, undermining Iran peace talks | Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, has said that Israeli troops would not withdraw from southern Lebanon<\/a>, further complicating Iran peace talks as fighting in Lebanon continues to be an obstacle to permanent peace.<\/p>\n

Speaking on stage in an interview in Tel Aviv, Katz said Israeli troops would remain in south Lebanon \u2013 echoing sentiments from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IDF is prepared \u2026 and we are not retreating. We announced that in any case we are not withdrawing, and as of this moment \u2013 and this is a political achievement \u2013 there is no American demand for Israel<\/a> to withdraw from Lebanon,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n

The US and Iran signed an accord last week extending a fragile ceasefire and setting the stage for 60 days of talks meant to lead to a permanent peace. The first hiccups to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) came last week after Israel continued its campaign in south Lebanon, leading Iran to threaten closure of the strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump on Wednesday put a positive spin on the talks, saying Iran<\/a> was \u201cbeing very nice\u201d and \u201cagreeing to everything that I want\u201d.<\/p>\n

But in fact the US and Iran\u2019s interpretation of the MOU has significantly differed, particularly over Lebanon. Iran has insisted that Israel needed to stop its war there and withdraw its troops in the south of the country. Israel has occupied large swathes<\/a> of south Lebanon in what it calls a \u201csecurity zone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israel and the Lebanese government are engaged in US-mediated talks, which, among other things, seek to arrange an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n

Israel is seeking a phased approach whereby it will hand off territory to the Lebanese army, tasked with keeping the area free of Hezbollah<\/a> fighters. These talks do not involve Hezbollah, however, calling into question how effective they can be.<\/p>\n

Iran, which is not a part of the Israel-Lebanon talks, has worked hard to link a ceasefire with Iran to an end to fighting in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, a ceasefire in Lebanon is as important as a ceasefire in Iran and, further, an end to the war in Lebanon is as important as an end to the war in Iran,\u201d Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A resident walks on Wednesday through the rubble of homes and businesses destroyed by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese village of Bir al-Salasil. Photograph: Fadel Itani\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

During remarks in the Oval Office, Trump suggested the US would deny involvement in a Tomahawk missile attack that struck a girl\u2019s elementary school on the first day of the war, killing more than 150 people and probably dozens more. \u201cI have to wait for it to be completed,\u201d he said of the investigation. \u201cI don\u2019t know they\u2019re ever gonna solve that problem. You could ask Pete. Maybe it wasn\u2019t our missile.\u201d The US is the only party to the conflict with Tomahawk missiles.<\/p>\n

He also indicated he would be willing to share F-35 fighter jet technology with President Recep Erdo\u011fan as he planned to travel to Turkey for a Nato summit next month where jittery European leaders are expected to try to persuade Trump to remain committed to the alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to probably do something that\u2019s gonna make him very happy,\u201d Trump said during a meeting with Mark Rutte, the alliance\u2019s chief. \u201cExcept for the fact that it was being held in Turkey by President Erdo\u011fan, I don\u2019t think I would have gone to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump again suggested that the US had been \u201clet down\u201d by Nato, which he admitted he had not informed of his plans to strike Iran. \u201cWe demolished [Iran] in literally the first week but it would have been nice if they would have said: \u2018We\u2019d like to help,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fighting started in Lebanon after Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on 2 March in retaliation for the killing of the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggering an Israeli invasion. Israeli strikes have killed more than 4,200 people in Lebanon since then, while Hezbollah attacks have killed at least 36 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and three Israeli civilians.<\/p>\n

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah mediated by the US on Saturday has stopped most fighting in the country, with some exceptions. Israeli drones struck a car outside the city of Nabatieh on Wednesday, killing two people, according to the Lebanese ministry of health.<\/p>\n

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio<\/a>, was on day two of his three-day tour of the Arab Gulf. His visit to Gulf allies was his first high-profile visit to the region after the signing of the MOU last week, and was meant to allay concerns that the Iran deal was too conciliatory.<\/p>\n

Rubio arrived in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday to kick off his tour of the Gulf, having lunch with the president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as well as the foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan.<\/p>\n

Rubio is also slated to visit Kuwait and Bahrain. All three countries were hammered by Iranian strikes during the four-month war with Iran, bombings that Iran said were a result of their hosting US bases that were used to carry out attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n

The Gulf countries, which are close allies of the US, are concerned that the proposed Iran-US deal is too conciliatory to Iran.<\/p>\n

All countries faced civilian deaths and lasting economic damages from the Iranian attacks, particularly the UAE, which relies on tourism and expatriate labour for much of its non-oil revenues.<\/p>\n

In particular, there are worries that a proposed $300bn fund to Iran and the waiving of sanctions on the country would allow for the reconstruction of its military and for future threats against Gulf countries.<\/p>\n

Rubio emphasised the US\u2019s commitment to the UAE\u2019s security, as well as discussing the safe transit of oil and gas through the strait of Hormuz, during a meeting with the UAE president, a state department read-out said. The strait was mostly shut by Iran during the four-month war, disrupting shipping through the vital sea passage and sending energy prices soaring globally. Gulf states, which rely heavily on oil and gas exports, lost billions of dollars of revenues due to the strait\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n

Asked by reporters if he would address allies\u2019 concerns over the Iran deal, Rubio told journalists that the topic would \u201cmost certainly come up in these discussions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to hear from our partners,\u201d Rubio said as he arrived in Abu Dhabi. \u201cWe want to make sure that their views are taken into account, and we understand their security concerns, their regional economic concerns as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Displaced people make their way back to their homes after the interim deal between the US and Iran, in Sidon, southern Lebanon, on Wednesday. Photograph: Aziz Taher\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Views in the Gulf over Iran see-sawed during the war, with monarchies at first furious with the Trump administration<\/a> for starting a war without prior consultation. As Iranian strikes ramped up on Gulf countries, some then pushed the US to take a harder stance on diplomacy with Iran, disturbed by the extent to which Iran was willing to bomb them.<\/p>\n

The US has sought to reassure Gulf countries that the deal would not provide Iran with a windfall, nor would it allow Iran to control the strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n

Trump said on Wednesday no money had been given to Iran and any unfrozen funds would be used to buy medical supplies and food from US farmers \u2013 something that Iran denied.<\/p>\n

Iran is also pushing for transit fees for ships going through the strait of Hormuz, a diplomat close to talks on the waterway told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Trump said on Wednesday the US had been told by Iran that there would be no tolls charged on ships<\/a> sailing through the strait.<\/p>\n

Disagreements also emerged over inspections of Iran\u2019s nuclear sites, after Trump said the country had agreed to allow inspections<\/a> into \u201cinfinity\u201d as part of last week\u2019s MOU. The US said preventing Iran from reaching a nuclear weapon was one of its key aims when it attacked the country on 28 February, while Iran said its nuclear programme was purely civilian. <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said no meeting had been held with the International Atomic Energy Agency\u2019s chief, Rafael Grossi, despite his request, and there were no plans to conduct inspections of nuclear facilities until a final agreement had been signed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, has said that Israeli troops would not withdraw from southern Lebanon, further…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-509423","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\/509423","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=509423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}