00:00Israel Rejects U.S.-Iran Deal, Vows to Maintain Lebanon Presence Amid Growing Split with Trump
00:07Jerusalem, Washington, June 18th. Israeli leaders have emphatically rejected the landmark U.S.-Iran
00:15peace agreement, declaring that the deal does not bind Israel and that Israeli forces will
00:20remain in southern Lebanon indefinitely, directly contradicting a key provision of the accord
00:25and setting the stage for a major rupture with the Trump administration.
00:30Israel, the deal does not bind us. This agreement is not binding on us. Israel is not subordinate
00:38to the United States. We are an independent and sovereign state, said National Security
00:43Minister Itamar Ben-Givar, leading the chorus of Israeli officials dismissing the agreement
00:48that is set to be formally signed on June 19th in Geneva.
00:52Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that Israel would not withdraw from occupied areas
00:58in southern Lebanon despite all current and future pressure, adding that Israeli forces
01:03would remain in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza without a time limit. We will not compromise on Israel's
01:10supreme security interests and the protection of our citizens, and we will not withdraw from
01:15the security zones, Katz declared. This stance directly challenges the U.S.-Iran Deal, which
01:21includes provisions calling for an end to all military operations, including in Lebanon, a key Iranian
01:27condition for signing. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakji has insisted that without the withdrawal
01:34of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end.
01:39Israel's unmet war aims Israeli leaders and analysts have described the agreement as a
01:46catastrophic capitulation and a diplomatic October 7th. The deal accomplishes none of Israel's stated
01:53war objectives. Regime change Tehran's government has emerged from the war even more hardline and
02:00emboldened despite being decapitated at the outset. Nuclear program Iran's nuclear future was deferred to a
02:08later stage of negotiations. Ballistic missiles. The agreement does nothing to address Iran's missile
02:14arsenal. Proxy militias. Iran's support for Hezbollah remains unaddressed. Nir Dvorri, an analyst for
02:22Israel's Channel 12 News, called it a cataclysmic disaster. Yaakov Amidwar, a hawkish former Israeli
02:29national security advisor, said it's a bad agreement in which the Americans are paying with cash and got at the
02:35maximum a letter of intent. Trump. Netanyahu must be more responsible. The rift between the two leaders
02:43has grown increasingly public. At the G7 summit in France, President Trump issued a rare public rebuke
02:50of Israel's military tactics in Lebanon. You don't have to knock down an apartment house every time
02:55you're looking for somebody because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they're not all
03:00Hezbollah, Trump said. Without us, without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me,
03:08there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did, Trump added, asserting
03:14that Netanyahu must now be more responsible in Lebanon. Trump told the New York Times that he had
03:20described Netanyahu as a very difficult guy and argued that the Israeli leaders should be grateful for U.S.
03:26efforts. He should be very thankful to us for doing this, Trump said. If Iran had a nuclear weapon,
03:33Israel wouldn't be around for two hours. Leaked comments from an Axios interview further exposed
03:39Trump's frustration. Why did Bibi have to do a fucking attack? I was so pissed off. I let him know
03:46he has no fucking judgment. The Lebanon Dilemma. The future of Israeli troops in southern Lebanon
03:53has become the central obstacle. While a U.S. official said the deal did not call for an Israeli
03:59withdrawal, regional officials with direct knowledge of the interim agreement told the
04:04Associated Press that it would require Israel to leave nearly all occupied Lebanese territory.
04:10Two regional officials said Iran insisted on including Lebanon in the final days of negotiations.
04:16Iranian officials reportedly told Hezbollah that Israel is expected to begin a gradual withdrawal
04:22following the signing, with completion targeted before the 60-day nuclear negotiation deadline.
04:28However, Netanyahu has refused. Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israeli forces would remain in southern
04:34Lebanon as long as necessary, and that the country had established deep security zones in Lebanon,
04:40Syria, and Gaza. With an agreement or without an agreement, Iran will not have nuclear weapons. Not today,
04:47and not tomorrow, Netanyahu declared, insisting this was his life's mission.
04:53Electoral stakes. Peace versus war. Political analysts point to a fundamental divergence in the
05:00leader's political incentives. Donald Trump needs peace to run the midterm elections, and Benjamin
05:06Netanyahu needs war for his election, said Elijah Magnier, a veteran war correspondent and political risk
05:12analyst speaking to CGTN. Netanyahu faces a general election by October, and if he loses, could face
05:19corruption charges. Right-wing coalition members, including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have
05:25called the deal bad for Israel and the free world, and vowed to continue the campaign to topple the Iranian
05:31regime.
05:32What comes next? The formal signing is scheduled for June 19th in Geneva, with the US and Iran beginning 60
05:40days of negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, sanctions relief, and the release of frozen assets.
05:46The agreement also reportedly includes a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran tied to compliance.
05:53But as Danny Citronowitz, former head of the Iran branch in Israel's defense intelligence, told the ABC,
06:00if Trump wants us to withdraw from Lebanon, we will withdraw from Lebanon. Our ability to challenge Trump,
06:06regardless of what Netanyahu is saying, I think is limited to none. However, a senior Israeli official
06:13told Reuters that the outcome depends on whether Trump decides to force the issue. As another analyst
06:19noted, Israel can play the spoiler, but the price will be friction with the US administration and Trump
06:25specifically.
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