Iran Negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf Questions US Peace Commitment After Israel Attacks Beirut

Iran’s top negotiator questioned the United States’ commitment to peace efforts after Israel carried out new attacks on Lebanon, dimming prospects of Tehran and Washington signing a framework agreement on Sunday on ending their war.

“In her work A Sacred Cause”

Contretemps

US President Donald Trump and mediator Pakistan said on Saturday they expected the deal would be signed on Sunday, but Iranian negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Israel’s attack on Sunday on the southern suburbs of Beirut showed the US lacked the will or ability to fulfil its commitments.

Contretemps

Qalibaf wrote on X, "If you lack the will and ability to fulfil your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible," while Mohammad Jafar Assadi, quoted by state media, said Israeli "crimes" in Beirut’s southern suburbs would not go unanswered.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that Hezbollah had launched three projectiles towards communities in northern Israel in violation of a ceasefire in Lebanon, and Lebanon’s civil defence said an Israeli attack in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood of Beirut killed three people.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told CNN that the agreement Lebanon had managed to reach could be a path forward toward a just and lasting peace, while he attacked Hezbollah and said Iran was using Lebanon as a leverage in its negotiations with the United States.

Aoun said, "Iran is using Lebanon as a pressure card in its negotiations with the United States, and that is unacceptable," and he added, "Lebanon is not your country, but ours."

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Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the government chose the path of negotiation because it is the least costly for Lebanon and its people, and he stressed that the South and its people are paying the price for a decision they did not make and a war that is not their war.

Salam urged Iran to have mercy on the South, saying, "Iran must have mercy on our south and stop treating it and its people as a card to improve negotiation terms," while the text also says the return of the displaced to their land in the South is at the core of the government’s priorities.

A piece in The Conversation frames the Gaza war as having claimed more than 50,000 Palestinian lives and says the Gaza population faces a critical risk of famine after two months of humanitarian aid blockade.

“Iran's top negotiator questioned the United States' commitment to peace efforts after Israel carried out new attacks on Lebanon, dimming prospects of Tehran and Washington signing a framework agreement on Sunday on ending their war”

Telegraph India

It also says that on October 7, 2023, Hamas fighters attacked a border area of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,000 Israelis and capturing more than 200 hostages, and it adds that 58 hostages remain held in Gaza, of whom only 24 would still be alive.

The article describes Israeli citizens as frustrated and exhausted, saying their security has not improved, and it reports that "many of them are urging the Israeli government to immediately stop the war."

In parallel, it says Benjamin Netanyahu announces a plan for intensive conquest and displacement of the population, while the text states that the Netanyahu government is accused of genocide — an accusation currently under investigation by the International Court of Justice.