Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Monday that a framework agreement brokered by the United States with Israel "will not pass" and "will not be implemented." Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, indicated that his Amal movement would oppose the deal within the Lebanese Cabinet.
According to Berri, the US-brokered framework, which would allow the Israeli Defense Forces to maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is removed from the area, is significantly worse than the 1983 agreement, which represented the closest Beirut and Jerusalem had previously come to a peace arrangement. He suggested that progress on Lebanese obligations toward Israel would depend on "US.-Iranian negotiating track."
A senior Israeli official, however, told JNS on Sunday that the agreement achieves a significant objective by superseding a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran that was mediated earlier this month. That prior understanding had called for an "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon," even before any disarmament of Hezbollah.
The Israel-Lebanon agreement, signed on Friday, outlines two pilot zones. These zones, recommended by the IDF, would involve the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm the Iranian proxy group.