President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Iran “must” stop its financial backing of Hezbollah as a condition for reaching a potential deal to end hostilities with Tehran, following an extension of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire.
During an Oval Office meeting with ambassadors from Israel and Lebanon, Trump confirmed that the two countries had agreed to extend their existing ceasefire for three weeks. The original 10-day ceasefire had been scheduled to expire on Sunday.
UCLA political scientist Benjamin Radd said the Lebanon-Israel agreement serves as “a sort of precursor or maybe an extension of the main agreement which is the one between Iran and the United States.” He added that Trump appears to be seeking “to clear the table to get into the harder, thornier negotiations between the United States and Iranian counterparts.”
Regarding Hezbollah compliance with the ceasefire extension, Radd noted that “there really is not a whole lot that the Lebanese National Army can do to ensure Hezbollah’s compliance,” adding that “much is up to the Iranian regime which ultimately controls what Hezbollah does and does not do.”
Radd described Hezbollah as “a creation of the Islamic Republic,” created in 1982-83 following Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon as a way for Iran “to expand and extend Iran’s hard power beyond its borders.” He characterized Iran as Hezbollah’s “sole patron.”
The political scientist also noted that deploying top leaders rather than ambassadors to negotiate “is the most senior level that you can have really diplomatically” and would mark the first direct Israel-Lebanese talks at the highest level since the early 1980s, calling it “a huge win for diplomacy and for peace in the Middle East and a huge setback for Iran if it were to happen.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Central Command announced that a third U.S. aircraft carrier has arrived in Middle East waters. Radd said the additional carrier “reinforces the naval ships that are there” and “provides the president with options” to potentially take out Iranian positions.
The ceasefire extension comes after several incidents of exchanged fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, though Radd said both sides “were able to keep it contained and confined to a few exchange of rounds.”
