According to the Trump administration, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a truce on Thursday, June 4th. In turn, it has been suggested that this could lead to a U.S.-Iranian peace deal, as previously Tehran as part of negotiations has sought to protect its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah from Israeli retaliation.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun announced that the ceasefire would come into force within 24 hours of approval by ‘all concerned parties,’ one of which is likely to be Hezbollah, which has yet to comment. Defence minister Israel Katz has asserted the right of the Israel Defense Forces to continue fighting and maintain captured territory in South Lebanon.
The U.S. State Department also announced that the two countries will create a number of new security zones inside Lebanon in which Hezbollah operatives would be banned, which would likely modify the current ‘yellow line’ which indicates Israeli-held territory. The draft agreement says that the U.S. would help guide the creation of
pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors.
With Shia Muslim militia Hezbollah currently more powerful than the Lebanese army, any such initiative would prove challenging to Aoun’s national military.
