Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Monday that a US-brokered peace framework with Israel “will not be implemented,” days after Hezbollah rejected the proposal as “null and void” and “humiliating.”
Berri, a longtime ally of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, issued the sharp criticism just three days after the agreement was signed in Washington, D.C.
He argued that the US-backed framework — which would permit the Israel Defense Forces to maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is removed from the area — is “10 times worse” than the May 17, 1983, agreement, the closest Beirut and Jerusalem have come to reaching a peace deal.
“This agreement will not be adopted and it will not be implemented in its current form,” Berri, 88, said, according to Israeli outlet I24 News. He also described the proposal as an “agreement of dictates.”
Berri claimed the framework fails to safeguard Lebanon’s rights.
The Hezbollah-aligned speaker said he was relying on the “US-Iranian negotiating track” as the only process capable of forcing Israel to meet what he called its “obligations” toward Lebanon.
A senior Israeli official told the Jewish News Syndicate on Sunday that one key accomplishment of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s framework agreement with Lebanon is that it “trumps” a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran reached earlier this month through Pakistani mediation.
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That memorandum had called for an “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” even before Hezbollah disarmed.
Berri’s rebuke came after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem branded the deal a “grave blunder.”
“The framework agreement in Washington is humiliating, shameful, and a surrender of sovereignty,” he said Saturday.
“Linking the Israeli withdrawal to the disarmament of the resistance throughout Lebanon is a very dangerous proposition that crosses all red lines.”
Qassem called for the deal to be replaced with the Memorandum of Understanding reached between Iran and the US — which calls for the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
Hezbollah would continue to fight Israel and not disarm, he vowed.
“We did not leave the battlefield in the most difficult circumstances, and we will not leave it,” Qassem said.
Meanwhile, Rubio championed the agreement, saying “it marks another major milestone in President Trump’s effort to bring lasting peace and stability” to the Middle East.
“This agreement establishes a clear and structured process to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah, and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure, and enable Israel to return to its borders once that threat to its citizens is removed.”
The US will also commit $100 million in humanitarian assistance in coordination with the United Nations.
With Post wires
