The REAL US-Iran deal doesn’t actually include Lebanon (explicitly)

Описание: At the epicentre of the war’s violence today, no one needs peace more than the one country whose inclusion in the deal remains one big question mark.

When the breakthrough was announced on Sunday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose nation had been mediating, said it included "the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon".

If this is true, it’s true on paper alone.

Israel's Defense Minister Katz says the military will not withdraw from the swathes of Lebanon’s south it has occupied.

He said these “security zones” will be cleared of local residents and all “terror infrastructure” destroyed, and called holding the zones "among the IDF's greatest achievements".

Unambiguously, he then declared Israel "will not withdraw despite all existing pressures and those that will still come." Netanyahu has reiterated this.

US officials were also quick to water down the apparent commitment, saying that while Lebanon is covered by the ceasefire framework, the withdrawal of Israeli forces is not a strict condition. Israel, they said, would retain the right to "self-defence”.

Where does that leave Lebanon– and does any deal exist without it?

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