Huckabee pushes back on Iran warning to Israel

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Wednesday pushed back on Iran after officials called on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and stop carrying out airstrikes.

“Iran demands @Israel cease defense of border against Hezbollah,” Huckabee wrote on the social platform X. “Gaza peace plan depends on Hamas disarming. Idea: EVERY member of Hezbollah & Hamas DEPORT to ‘Mothership’ in Iran. Result? Lebanon & Israel free from Iran terror proxies. Give PEACE a chance!”

Huckabee has said that Hezbollah is not included in the 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU) to finalize the end of the U.S.-Israeli conflict on Iran. The MOU does not refer to the Iran-backed militant group but it does “declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, said the ceasefire holds “particular emphasis on Lebanon.”

“Any continued occupation of Lebanese territory will be regarded by us as a violation of the memorandum of understanding,” Araghchi told diplomats in remarks played on Iranian state media Tuesday, according to CBS News.

The Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the operational command for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on Tuesday also warned Israel to stop “repeated ceasefire violations in Lebanon or face a harsh response from Iran’s Armed Forces,” the state-run Fars News Agency reported.

Huckabee previously said Israel “does not need Iran permission to defend itself.”

President Trump said the deal will survive despite Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and on Tuesday called Hezbollah “that little pinprick out there that constantly rears its head.”

“Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed,” the president added while at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Évian-les-Bains, France. “And you don‘t have to knock down an apartment house every time you‘re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they‘re not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you.”

Israeli officials said Monday that they will not withdraw the Israeli military from lands seized in Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military will remain in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza until all “terrorist infrastructure” is destroyed.

“Trump’s agreement does not bind us,” Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote Monday on the social platform X in a post translated from Hebrew. “Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation!”