Iran demands Lebanon ceasefire as non-negotiable terms for US peace deal

Iran has made halting the fighting in Lebanon a prerequisite for any agreement with the US to bring the broader West Asia war to an end, Iran's Foreign Ministry declared on Monday (June 1). Speaking at his weekly press briefing, foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon was not a peripheral demand but a core requirement. "We insist that a ceasefire in Lebanon is an essential condition for any deal aimed at ending the war," he said, as Israel continued to press its offensive in the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to advance further into Lebanese territory, and the UN Security Council was convening an emergency session on Monday following Israel's seizure of the mediaeval Beaufort castle. Baqaei made clear that Tehran would not stand aside, saying Iran "will take all measures to support Lebanon and the resistance against the Zionist regime's illegal aggression."

Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, pointed to the US naval blockade on Iranian ports, in place since April 13, and the intensifying conflict in Lebanon as proof of Washington's bad faith. "Clear evidence of US non-compliance with the ceasefire," he called it, warning on X: "Every choice has a price and the bill comes due."

The statements came against the backdrop of ongoing back-channel exchanges between Tehran and Washington aimed at hammering out a framework to end hostilities, a war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February before spreading across the region.

Although a ceasefire between Iran, the US and Israel has nominally held since April 8, fighting has persisted in Lebanon. Baqaei directly accused Washington of breaching the truce after a US strike on a telecommunications tower in a southern Iranian port city, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards retaliating against the base from which the attack was launched.

Israeli PMBenjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz on Monday (June 1) said they ordered strikes on the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut, a stronghold of the Hezbollah group. "Following the Hezbollah terrorist organisation's repeated and ongoing violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon and its attacks against our civilians and cities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have instructed the IDF to strike terror targets in the Dahia Quarter of Beirut," a joint statement from the two officials said.