Senior Lebanese official slams US-brokered deal with Israel, warns of divisions

BEIRUT Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key ally of Hezbollah, on Monday slammed a U.S.-brokered agreement between Lebanon and Israel, warning it could lead to attempts to divide Lebanese and said it would not be implemented.

Israeli officials suggested the agreement would move forward in the coming days, but there were no immediate reports of any aspects of the deal being implemented on the ground. Israeli artillery shelled an area near the border in southern Lebanon on Monday, according to the Lebanese state news agency, and the sound of a drone buzzed over Beirut, Reuters reporters said.

In comments to Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper, Berri described Iran-U.S. talks as the only realistic opportunity to secure Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and that any attempt to separate Lebanon from the U.S.-Iran track would prolong Israeli occupation.

Israel has occupied a swathe of southern Lebanon in a war with Hezbollah that began on March 2, when the group opened fire at Israel after Iran came under U.S.-Israeli attack.

The Lebanon war has been a central part of diplomacy towards ending the wider U.S.-Iran conflict. Tehran has insisted on a Lebanon ceasefire as part of its interim deal with Washington, while the U.S. has sponsored separate talks between the Lebanese and Israeli governments, which Beirut has attended despite Hezbollah's objections.

Israel has praised the agreement, signed by the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington on Friday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying it allows Israeli forces to continue to occupy southern Lebanon if Hezbollah does not disarm.

Hezbollah, which has demanded Beirut quit its face-to-face talks with the Israeli government, has rejected the deal as a surrender to Israel.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati said on Monday the accord was "effectively dead" already. He said there was "no reason to mobilize people in the streets or take any action" as there was no way it could be implemented, he told Lebanese Al Jadeed TV.

BERRI DISMISSES LEBANON-ISRAEL AGREEMENT AS 'DIKTATS'

The agreement foresees Lebanon's army taking over territory pending the disarmament of Hezbollah -- saying this would enable Israel's military "to progressively redeploy out of" Lebanon. Lebanon's army would gradually assume responsibility in "pilot zones".

A senior Israeli official said the pilot zone process under which troops would withdraw would begin "immediately", without elaborating. A second Israeli official said the "redeployment" from the pilot zones might begin in the coming days.

The zones, according to maps published by the Israeli government, include the Lebanese villages of Froun, Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh and Ghandouriyeh.

Two Israeli officials said separately that these areas had been taken by Israeli forces recently to use as leverage in negotiations.

A satellite image of Froun, taken on June 24 by Airbus, showed destruction to large parts of the village.

Berri, head of the Amal Movement, described the agreement as "diktats". Al-Akhbar quoted Berri as saying the most dangerous aspects of the agreement included "the potential for it to incite internal divisions and draw the Lebanese into a confrontation among themselves".

The agreement "won't be implemented", al-Akhbar cited him as saying.

The intensity of hostilities in Lebanon in the south has abated this month, as Iran has insisted on its demand for a Lebanon ceasefire in talks with the U.S., and as Israel has scaled back attacks in Lebanon at Washington's behest.

The U.S.-Iran interim agreement requires both countries and their allies to end military operations on all fronts including Lebanon. Iran is also seeking Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

ISRAEL STRIKES HEZBOLLAH TARGETS

The Lebanese government sought face-to-face talks with Israel early in the war despite objections from Shi'ite Hezbollah, reflecting divisions over the group's decision to join the conflict.

The government has pursued a policy aimed at securing Hezbollah's disarmament since last year, after the group was badly weakened during a previous war with Israel in 2024.

Israeli forces seized a self-declared security zone stretching into southern Lebanon during the war, citing the need to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks.

The Israeli military said it destroyed a Hezbollah tunnel in the south overnight and struck three Hezbollah command centres in southern Lebanon on Sunday in response to violations of a ceasefire by Hezbollah.

(Reporting by Tala Ramadan and Nayera Abdallah in Dubai, Jana Choukeir and Catherine Cartier in Beirut, Rami Ayyub and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Writing by Tom Perry; editing by John Davison, William Maclean)