Iran has reaffirmed support for its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and demanded that Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon, underscoring complications facing an interim deal to end the broader conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
Tehran has made a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah a condition for any peace deal with Washington to resolve the regional war, now in its fourth month, and restart shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel erupted at the start of March, two days after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran. Hezbollah said its actions were in support of Tehran.
"This war will end only when it ends in Lebanon as well," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen late on Thursday.
"The end of the war on Lebanon must be accompanied by the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they have occupied," he said.
The comments came after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected a U.S.-brokered pact between Israel and the Lebanese government to halt the fighting in Lebanon. The deal did not provide for an Israeli withdrawal and Hezbollah had not been party to the negotiations.
Israel has kept up strikes in southern Lebanon, and has said its forces would not withdraw or halt operations in the country amid increasing friction with the U.S.
Hezbollah said on Friday it had carried out two attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon, including near the recently captured Beaufort Castle, while Lebanese security services said Israeli airstrikes hit towns across southern Lebanon.
FIGHTING FLARES ACROSS REGION DESPITE CEASEFIRES
Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said Hezbollah had "made great sacrifices in the recent war and it is our ally. Therefore, we support Hezbollah and remain firmly committed to our obligations toward it."
In comments reported by the semi-official Mehr news agency, Rezaei cautioned Israel against following through on threats to resume strikes against Beirut, the Lebanese capital.
"Today we again warn this sinister regime to leave Lebanon. They should know that Lebanon will be an inseparable part of any agreement and any ceasefire," he said.
Lebanon's parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri said on Friday he would agree to the withdrawal of the Iran-backed group from southern Lebanon if Israeli troops simultaneously left territory they occupy in the country.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun on Friday accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards of using Lebanon as a "bargaining chip" in negotiations with the U.S., telling CNN this was "unacceptable".
Along with Lebanon, residents of Gaza, northern Israel and Kuwait have all been under fire this week, despite U.S.-arranged ceasefires that President Donald Trump said involved "shooting in a more moderate manner", rather than a total halt to fighting.
On Friday, Iran's navy said it had fired warning shots at U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Oman to counter "maritime mischief and harassment and the hijacking of commercial vessels and oil tankers". Earlier, U.S. forces said they had boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean and that they would continue to block "vessels providing material support to Iran".
The U.S. Central Command denied Iran's claims.
"Iranian forces did NOT attack or fire at U.S. Navy warships. Doing so would be a gross violation of the ceasefire," Central Command said in a statement on X.
In Oman, an alleged drone attack forced the suspension of oil loading at the Mina al Fahal terminal after an explosion, sources said, before normal operations resumed.
INTERIM DEAL WOULD LEAVE COMPLEX ISSUES FOR LATER
After the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28, Tehran fired missiles and drones against Gulf states hosting U.S. bases and largely stopped shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trade remains at a fraction of its former levels through the waterway, which previously carried about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
The conflict has driven up oil prices and disrupted supply chains for other products. The U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday that it was pushing millions of people closer to hunger due to rising fuel and transport costs.
The U.S. and Iran have been engaged in largely indirect negotiations to secure an interim deal to halt the war that would leave issues including Iran's nuclear programme to further negotiations.
As part of any agreement, Tehran wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers on sanctions on crude exports, the lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and leverage over the strait.
Trump, who faces domestic pressure over an unpopular war, has said his top priority is to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran says its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.
Iranian parliament deputy speaker Hamid-Reza Haji Babaei said on Friday that uranium enrichment was Iran's right, and that Trump had failed to understand that Iran's "most powerful atomic bomb" was the Strait of Hormuz.
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
