Alwaght- Three days after the US-Iran ceasefire was announced and while under Iran's 10-point proposal all regional fronts should be included in this deal, the Israeli regime as ever intensifies war on Lebanon in defiance of the truce terms. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that Lebanon is not covered by the agreement and Tel Aviv will continue its strikes there.
In recent days, a sweeping wave of attacks by the Israeli regime on Lebanon has left hundreds dead and wounded, and several residential areas have been reduced to rubble in the bombardments. Although Netanyahu’s hardline government believed that with the ceasefire agreement, and with Iran beginning negotiations in Pakistan, Tehran would refrain from focusing on the Lebanese front and thus allow Israel to carry out its evil plans with ease, the sharp and explicit warnings from Iran’s armed forces and political officials to the US and its ally showed that the Islamic Republic will never abandon its allies in the face of a bloodthirsty regime.
Therefore, Iran’s first response to the Israeli regime’s crimes against Lebanon was to immediately block maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which according to previous agreements was supposed to be reopened. As a result, this move by Iran instantly pushed global oil prices back on an upward trajectory.
The commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Sayyed Majid Mousavi also threatened that Iran would deliver a "decisive response to the Zionist regime’s savage crimes" against Lebanon. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagheri Qalibaf, likewise stated that “Lebanon was part of the ceasefire agreement, and Washington has so far violated three terms of Iran’s proposal for the ceasefire.”
Some sources even said that Iran was on the verge of responding to the ceasefire violations by Tel Aviv, but Pakistan intervened and conveyed messages indicating that the Washington was trying to rein in Tel Aviv. Along these lines, CNN reported that Trump told Netanyahu to scale back the attacks on Lebanon to facilitate progress in negotiations with Tehran.
Despite Trump’s warnings, Iran declared that continued violations and attacks on Lebanon will bring the talks to failure.
It is noteworthy that Hezbollah entered the fighting in response to the US and Israeli regime’s aggression against Iran, and over the past forty days has managed to bombard the northern front of the occupied territories with thousands of rockets and drones, inflicting heavy blows on the Israeli regime.
So, now it is Iran's turn to back this powerful branch of the broader Axis of Resistance. Despite Trump's remarks that Lebanon is not included in the truce, one of Tehran's 10-point proposal was that Israel ends its aggression on Lebanon and if Washington does not agree to this, a permanent ceasefire and deal is unlikely between the two.
By keeping Strait of Hormuz closed in reaction to aggression on Lebanon, the Islamic Republic is using this as a leverage to wrest concessions from the opposite side, and given the home and international opposition to Trump's warmongering, Iranian power in this strategic waterway can push the enemy back on all fronts.
American media outlets suggest that Washington has entered negotiations with the aim of ending this self-created crisis. This is evident from US’s battlefield defeats, its inability to continue the war, and the presence of Vice President Vance at the Islamabad talks.
Analysts believe Trump finds himself in a position where he will be compelled to grant significant concessions to Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This is because a new order is emerging in West Asia region, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran at its helm.
Currently, many officials and analysts within the Axis of Resistance are convinced that Lebanon should not be abandoned to the Israelis in this situation. They argue that failure to deliver a decisive response to the aggressora will embolden the Israeli regime to attack other branches of the Resistance camp in the future. Therefore, any potential agreement in Islamabad must include the issue of a ceasefire in Lebanon to prevent Tel Aviv from continuing its crimes.
Lebanon’s government stretches begging hand to Israeli regime
While the Israeli regime by its massacring of the Lebanese civilians is seeking to reverse its defeat in the current war, the Lebanese continues a regrettable stance. A resource within the Lebanese government told the CNN that after the Israeli call for direct dialogue with Beirut, the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is set to travel to Washington. Many Lebanese parties see this a recognition of the Israeli regime.
The Lebanese government’s yielding to direct talks with the Israeli regime, especially at a time when it has shed the blood of thousands in daily attacks on Lebanon over the past three years, is a sign of raising the white flag to the occupation.
Experience has shown that negotiations with the Israeli enemy, which disregards ceasefire agreements, will not resolve Lebanon’s problems. In the past two years, the Israeli army, despite the ceasefire, has carried out thousands of attacks on southern Lebanon, which has even drawn the condemnation of the UN. Nevertheless, instead of standing alongside Hezbollah and forcing the enemy to retreat with military power, the statesmen in Beirut are playing into Tel Aviv’s hands.
In the past year, when the leaders in Tel Aviv and Washington were pursuing the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Lebanese government, instead of strengthening its own military power to deter the enemy from any thought of aggression, pressured the Hezbollah’s leaders to hand over their weapons to the government. They were oblivious to the fact that without the resistance’s weapons, Israel would annex Lebanon to the occupied territories in the shortest possible time, a part of the “Greater Israel” project that Netanyahu has been tasked with carrying out.
The Lebanese PM naively believes that with the help of Trump, he can convince the Israeli occupation regime to stop its military operations in Lebanon. However, Trump, in his war with Iran, showed that he is a pawn of Netanyahu and acts to serve Israeli interests and destroy the resistance front, a policy that has even angered the Americans.
Experience of four decades of resistance in Lebanon has shown that Tel Aviv only knows the language of force, and during this time Hezbollah has managed to deal painful blows to Tel Aviv by expelling occupation forces from Lebanon in 2000, winning the 33-Day War in 2006, and also in Gaza and Iran wars.
Therefore, if Lebanese officials want to get rid of the Israeli crimes for ever, the only choice is strengthening military deterrence and aligning with Hezbollah and Axis of Resistance, because just contrary to its claims, Washington will not equip Lebanese army but paves the way for Israeli occupation by undermining it.
