ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH exchanged fire on Tuesday despite US president Donald Trump’s claim that he had brokered a deal for the region.
The Lebanese embassy in Washington said that deal would, at first, only cover Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory before expanding in scope.
Neither side has publicly accepted Trump’s proposal, and Lebanon media has reported Israeli strikes, some of them deadly, on around 30 locations across the south on Tuesday.
The latest attacks come after Trump’s angry call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his military’s escalation as Israeli troops staged their deepest ground offensive into Lebanon in two decades.
Hezbollah meanwhile said it had attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanese lands they occupy, but had not claimed attacks in Israel. The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles from Lebanon, without reporting any injuries.
The fighting took place with Israeli and Lebanese diplomats in Washington for a fourth round of direct talks since the start of the current war.
“Israel and Lebanon can do a peace deal tomorrow,” Rubio told a hearing of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. He added: “Israel has no territorial claims in Lebanon. Hezbollah is the impediment.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called the talks, which are strongly opposed by Hezbollah, “the least costly choice for Lebanon”.
‘Crazy’
Rubio said Washington wanted the talks to remain independent of those with Iran to end the wider Middle East war launched by the US and Israel against Tehran on 28 February.
Tehran has repeatedly linked the two conflicts and on Monday said that Israel’s expanding campaign in Lebanon risked ending the US-Iran ceasefire in place since 8 April.
Israel’s military took over the medieval castle of Beaufort in Lebanese territory this week, a move which prompted French president Emmanuel Macron to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
Citing what he called Hezbollah’s “repeated violations” of a ceasefire officially in place since 17 April but never respected by either side, Netanyahu ordered strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold.
According to US site Axios, however, Trump pressured Netanyahu to back down, calling him “crazy” in a phone call and accusing him of putting peace talks with Iran at risk.
Trump allegedly said “you’re fucking crazy” and “everybody hates Israel because of this”.
“You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now,” he allegedly added.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz subsequently said that Israel had established “a new equation” backed by Washington that his country would hit the Beirut suburbs if Hezbollah continued firing at Israel.
Citing Israel’s actions in Lebanon, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Monday that Iran was suspending peace talks with Washington.
Trump on Tuesday denied the report, however, insisting that the US and Iran were speaking “continuously” including “one day ago and today”.
With reporting from AFP.
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