Netanyahu says Israel will keep forces in Lebanon, despite US-Iran deal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a defiant address to Israelis, suggested Monday that he did not feel bound by the newly reached ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran.

“The struggle has not ended,” Netanyahu declared.

Foreshadowing potential trouble for the peace deal, he said he had no intention of withdrawing his forces from neighboring Lebanon — a key demand of the Iranians during negotiations with the United States. Israeli soldiers there are fighting Hezbollah, a militant group allied with Iran.

In March, soon after the US-Israeli war against Iran began, Hezbollah began firing on Israel in a show of solidarity with the Iranians.

Israeli troops then occupied what Netanyahu has called a “security zone” in southern Lebanon. They have also attacked what they say are Hezbollah targets beyond there, bombing in and near Beirut, the capital, which recently prompted Iranian strikes on Israel.

Over more than three months of Israel-Hezbollah clashes, more than 3,700 Lebanese and at least 30 Israelis have been killed, according to authorities in both countries.

In the negotiations with the United States to end the war with Iran, the Iranians demanded that Israel withdraw its forces from Lebanon, though the Israelis were not party to the talks. Israel and Lebanon separately held talks in Washington about a potential peace deal, but it is contingent on Hezbollah, which is distinct from the Lebanese government, not firing on Israel. Hezbollah has rejected those direct talks, which it is not involved in.

With the text of the agreement reached this week still not publicly released, confusion — and conflicting accounts — remain over just what was agreed to.

But Israelis across the political spectrum have made their dismay at the deal clear, and Netanyahu, facing a potentially tough reelection campaign later this year, appeared to be sending them a message Monday.

“I want to make clear: We will remain in the security zones as long as required in order to defend our country,” he said.

Netanyahu is under pressure from critics who say he has subordinated their country’s security interests to the whims and will of President Donald Trump. The Israeli prime minister has tried to simultaneously present himself as close to the American president and as independent.

“It’s a relationship of partners,” he said. The two leaders often agree and sometimes do not, he said, as “happens in the best of families.”

Even as he distanced himself from the US deal, the prime minister framed the war against Iran as a victory for Israel. If Israel and the United States had not acted, he said, “Iran would already have atomic bombs,” and the Israelis would be in “terrible danger of mass death.”

But he struck a different tone about the deal that was agreed to this week.

“This agreement was made by the United States, by the president of the United States,” Netanyahu said. “That’s his decision,” he said and repeated the statement for emphasis.

He added, “We have our own interests.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.