Israeli forces have carried out new strikes in southern Lebanon, state media say, despite renewed criticism from US President Donald Trump of Israel’s actions in the country.
On Wednesday, Israeli jets struck the Nabatieh al-Fawqa area and the outskirts of neighbouring Kfar Tebnit, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported. The Israeli military has not yet commented, but has previously said it is targeting the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
The text of a deal between the US and Iran to end the war has not been released, but mediator Pakistan says it includes Lebanon.
On Tuesday, Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed “to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon”.
Speaking at the G7 summit in France, he also said that Israel had been fighting Hezbollah for “too long and too many people are being killed”.
Both Israel and Hezbollah have carried out attacks against each other since the US-Iran agreement was announced on Sunday night.
Earlier that day, an Israeli air strike on Beirut in response to cross-border rocket attack by Hezbollah had put pressure on attempts to finalise the deal.
Trump told the G7 that he had a “great relationship” with Netanyahu but said he “didn’t like that he did an attack... that was too much”.
He added: “Without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did.”
Netanyahu said on Monday that his country’s forces would remain in Lebanon “for as long as necessary”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has warned that it would view any Israeli attack on Lebanon or continued Israeli military presence in Lebanese territory as a violation of the interim agreement with the US.
The contents of the agreement - referred to as a memorandum of understanding - have not been officially released.
Both sides were expected to sign the deal on Friday in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock, Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry told the Schweiz Heute newspaper.
Trump said he would likely hold a news conference to publicly read the agreement between the US and Iran “word by word”.
He also said the deal meant Iran would “never have a nuclear weapon” and that the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway in the Gulf would reopen and be “toll-free”.
Trump has argued this deal would be better than the one Barack Obama negotiated when he was president.
“We didn’t pay for it like Obama did. He paid billions of dollars,” Trump said on Tuesday.
Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the US and five other world powers, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities and allow international inspections in return for sanctions relief and the release of frozen funds.
Source: BBC
--Agencies
