Nonetheless, Israel said to rebuff private US request to withdraw from Lebanon; president says relationship with Netanyahu is ‘good, but we have to keep him a little bit sane'.
US President Donald Trump said this week that he would be able to keep Israel from launching new attacks in Lebanon because the country has a lot of respect for him, thanks to his previous policies regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. Trump was asked during an interview with Axios — which was taped on Thursday and aired Friday — whether he’d be able to “control Israel from attacking Lebanon,” as Washington and Jerusalem have publicly disagreed about the decision to tie Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah to the controversial memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran. “Yeah, I will be,” the president responded.
“They have a lot of respect for me, and they do as I say,” he added, recalling how he pulled the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal orchestrated by the Obama administration and which Jerusalem opposed, and how he authorized a major attack on Iran’s three main nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war with Tehran last June. Trump has fumed over the scope of Israel’s attacks in Lebanon in recent days, insisting they have hampered efforts to reach and maintain an agreement with Iran.
Israel has agreed to refrain from attacking Beirut in response to that US anger but has kept its troops in a large buffer zone in southern Lebanon, which would appear to violate the terms of the deal that the US reached with Iran, given that the agreement states that all military operations in Lebanon must cease. The deal signed by Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, aims to end a conflict that began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, calling for a cessation of fighting between the US, Iran and their allies on all fronts, including Lebanon. It also provides for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the launch of a 60-day negotiation period on broader issues, including Tehran’s nuclear program.
Israel had no part in negotiating the deal, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from it. Still, the terms of the opening clause, permanently ending the war and ruling out any resumption, indicate that it is binding on the US, Iran “and their allies.” Israeli officials are bitterly opposed to the deal’s terms, which resolve none of the war’s key goals, notably eliminating Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and creating the conditions for the fall of the regime. (Read More)
