Iran’s FM: Next round of talks with US to start on Friday, IDF presence in Lebanon violates deal

Iran and the US will start a new round of negotiations on Friday in Switzerland to reach a final agreement, after the official start of an interim agreement that day, Iran’s foreign minister says.

Abbas Araghchi also warns that any Israeli attack on Lebanon or continued presence on Lebanese territory from now on constitutes a violation of the interim agreement with the United States.

Israel has said it will keep troops in Lebanon despite mediators and Iran saying that the US-Iran agreement includes a ceasefire in the conflict there between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.

“In our view, the two parties to this memorandum are the US and Israel on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other,” Araghchi says.

He calls ending the war in Lebanon was the “most important issue” in the deal with the United States.

“This is perhaps the most important issue in the memorandum — the declaration of an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” he says.

“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” he says, saying further Israeli attacks on Lebanon “will be considered by us a violation of the memorandum of understanding.”

Hezbollah began attacking Israel days after the beginning of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic, and Israel responded with airstrikes and by expanding its presence on the ground in Lebanon. Peace talks have been taking place between Israel and Lebanon, though ceasefires that were declared there in recent months have unraveled.