US, Iran Reach Framework Agreement to End Fighting
Fighting in southern Lebanon eased Monday after a US-Iran agreement to halt wider hostilities. Local councils urged displaced residents to stay away while Israeli officials said troops would remain in security zones.
upi.comA framework agreement between the United States and Iran was announced on June 15, with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stating early that day that the pact called for the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.
The announcement followed three months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that began after Hezbollah opened fire on Israel on March 2.
Authorities in southern Lebanon issued statements advising displaced residents against returning immediately. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that municipal councils in the south called on residents to hold off on returning. Reuters reported that authorities in southern Lebanon warned people displaced by the fighting not to rush home.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would not withdraw from security zones in southern Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria. Katz stated that the security zone in southern Lebanon would be cleared of local residents and all terrorist infrastructure, including houses in contact villages, and that Israel would retaliate if Iran attacked Israel due to events in Lebanon.
Two million people were uprooted by the fighting. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shi'ites are sheltering in other parts of the country. Mona Mazeh, a displaced woman sheltering in Beirut's Hamra district, said she had no immediate plans to return to her village near Tyre.
"Frankly, we are hesitant; Israel cannot be trusted," Mazeh said on June 15. In Nabatieh, Mohammed Daqdouq returned on the morning of June 15 to check on his home. "We'll need a lifetime to rebuild - to rebuild it again and bring Nabatieh back to how it was," Daqdouq said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards established Hezbollah in 1982. Iran had insisted that a Lebanon ceasefire be included as part of any broader deal with the United States. On June 14, two people were killed when Israel launched an attack on Hezbollah targets in Beirut after cross-border fire, according to India Today.
