Nabih Berri, the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, declared on Monday that the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel “will not pass” and “will not be implemented.”
Berri, who is closely aligned with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group, stated to Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper that his political party, the Amal Movement, intends to “confront” the agreement within the Lebanese Cabinet.
The agreement, facilitated by the United States, proposes allowing the Israel Defense Forces to maintain a security presence in Southern Lebanon until Hezbollah withdraws. Berri criticized this framework, describing it as “10 times worse” than the agreement reached on May 17, 1983, which was the closest the two nations had come to establishing peace.
He underscored his reliance on the ongoing “U.S.-Iranian negotiating track” as the only viable method to ensure that Israel meets its “obligations” towards Lebanon.
According to a senior Israeli official speaking to JNS on Sunday, one notable success of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s framework with Lebanon is that it “trumps” a Memorandum of Understanding recently facilitated by Pakistan between Iran and Lebanon.
That agreement had called for an “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” even before Hezbollah’s disarmament.
The Israel-Lebanon agreement signed on Friday lays out two pilot zones recommended by the IDF, where the Lebanese Armed Forces would deploy and disarm the Iranian proxy.