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President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed over the past two months that a deal with Iran is imminent. Following an exchange of military attacks between Iran and Israel this week, Trump is treading in familiar narrative waters. Iran has made clear it remains open to a deal and charges that the basic contours of an agreement were in place weeks ago. Trump, Iranian officials charged, sabotaged an agreement by continuing the military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, striking Iran and allowing Israel to intensify its scorched earth attacks in southern Lebanon. After Iran hit back, launching missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israeli attacks on Beirut, Trump’s tone shifted back to diplomacy.

On the Drop Site live stream, Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim speak to Mohammad Ali Shabani, editor of Amwaj.Media, about the state of diplomacy and war, as well as Israel’s covert operations in Iran and whether Tehran will continue to define a ceasefire in Lebanon as a red line for any deal. Then, international law expert Maryam Jamshidi and political analyst Negar Mortazavi discuss the future of Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz and how international law has been attacked since the Gaza genocide began.

Tehran suspended ceasefire negotiations over Israel’s escalating attacks in Lebanon and U.S. strikes on Iranian shipping, as any prospect of a deal grows increasingly remote. Iran’s Foreign Ministry says a permanent Lebanon ceasefire is now a prerequisite for any agreement, while Strait of Hormuz closures send fertilizer and diesel prices soaring.

At the same time, Israel is pursuing a systematic campaign to empty entire communities across southern Lebanon and has destroyed approximately 60 villages near the southern border. Amnesty International warns the displacement orders “don’t constitute lawful advance warnings” and amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer.

* Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and Maysa Mustafa kicked off this week’s livestream speaking with Dr. Adam Hamawy, a plastic surgeon and U.S. veteran who performed surgeries in Gaza, and is now the frontrunner in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district in a primary where U.S. support for Israel’s wars in the Middle East have been defining issues.

* Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute joined to break down whether the Iran deal is collapsing in real time.

* Sean Vitka of Demand Progress discussed Rashida Tlaib’s Lebanon War Powers Resolution and Democratic Party inaction on the war.

* And Drop Site contributor Lylla Younes also joined live from Beirut, speaking on her reporting of the ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon—including her latest report on the Ain Arab village, where soldiers went door to door telling residents: “You either leave right now or you die.”

Stay INFORMED on our latest reporting: DropSiteNews.comWATCH our weekly live show, streaming every TUESDAY morning, on Substack, YouTube, and FacebookLISTEN to the show as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.SUBSCRIBE to Drop Site News. Our reporting is FREE, and we are committed to keeping it that way.To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribeDONATE to support Drop Site's independent journalism. Help us continue our work with a tax-deductible contribution at donate.dropsitenews.com.

Iran on Tuesday denounced U.S. strikes a day earlier as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations for a framework for a deal to end the war hang in the balance. The U.S. military confirmed that it had struck vessels near the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Monday in what called “self-defense strikes,” while Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it shot down a MQ-9 Reaper drone that entered Iranian airspace. 

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati traveled to Doha on Monday evening for continued talks with mediators.

A senior Iranian official told Drop Site on Friday that Tehran had put forward a set of terms as a framework for a deal, including the provisional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz—contingent on an end to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets, and a plan to compensate Iran for damages incurred in the war. The official also stated that the Iranian framework would require an agreement to permanently end the war first, followed by immediate negotiations to reach a deal over the nuclear program.

Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill speaks with Dr. Foad Izadi, professor of American studies and international relations at University of Tehran, about the latest. Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Jeremy also speak with Eyad Amawi of the Gaza Relief Committee in Deir al-Balah about the escalating Israeli assault on Gaza and the growing hunger crisis. Sharif also discusses the latest in Lebanon as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escalates Israeli attacks, and Jeremy outlines how President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has unilaterally rewritten the Gaza ceasefire agreement in an effort to compel Palestinians to surrender their liberation cause and institutionalize Israeli domination over the future of the Gaza Strip.

As President Donald Trump struggles to find a path to declare victory in his war of choice against Iran, he now claims he called off a resumption of military attacks he said were planned for Tuesday.

Trump announced Monday that a planned military strike on Iran had been postponed at the personal request of the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, because “serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond.”

While Iranian leaders said they are engaged in good faith negotiations, they have also said they have their own red lines and are prepared for a resumption of the war. Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill and Negar Mortazavi of the Center for International Policy discuss the latest developments.

Then, Ryan Grim discusses how the war in Sudan has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis while receiving far less global attention than Gaza or Ukraine.

Researcher Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, said the conflict has entered a new phase defined by drone warfare, with both the Sudanese army and the RSF increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure as the rainy season begins. He also warned that the RSF is militarily fragile and heavily dependent on UAE supply lines, arguing that pressure campaigns targeting the UAE’s business ties—especially through the NBA and Manchester City—could have more impact than diplomacy.

Humanitarian and world-renowned photographer Misan Harriman stressed the need for athletes, celebrities, and protest movements to connect Sudan to broader anti-war and anti-colonial struggles alongside Gaza and Congo.

FOLLOW Drop Site News for more independent news on war and politicsStay INFORMED on our latest reporting: DropSiteNews.comWATCH our weekly live show, streaming every TUESDAY morning, on Substack, YouTube, and FacebookLISTEN to the show as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

DONATE to support Drop Site's independent journalism. Help us continue our work with a tax-deductible contribution at donate.dropsitenews.com.

The ongoing deadlock between Iran and the U.S. over the Strait of Hormuz is now triggering a global economic crisis whose impacts are increasingly being felt at home. Any prospect of negotiations at present appears remote, as Donald Trump claims that the ceasefire between the two countries is on “life support,” while Iran maintains control of the vital waterway. The impact of the war has already been felt across Asia, but now threatens looming shortages on critical inputs like fertilizer in the U.S. as well.

Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain, Maysa Mustafa and Julian Andreone discuss the impacts of the shutdown and the current outlook on the Iran-U.S. standoff.

At the same time, Israel is pursuing an aggressive military campaign across southern Lebanon, destroying entire communities as the country’s leaders openly threaten to replicate the tactics of wholesale destruction employed in the Gaza Strip against the Lebanese people. Journalist Courtney Bonneau joins the stream live from south Lebanon amid an ongoing wave of Israeli strikes in the region.

Additionally, a new story on Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to the U.S. Treasury Department and its Iran sanctions program published in Drop Site sheds light on his quiet role in helping shape the political and economic landscape that gave rise to the current crisis.

The U.S. military escalation in the Strait of Hormuz is taking center stage as President Donald Trump contemplates whether to resume the war against Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the ceasefire remains in effect despite some limited military activity since Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. would begin an operation to “guide” merchant vessels from the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has declared that it remains in full control of the management of the Strait and is proceeding with consolidating a new regime of rules governing transit.

A senior Iranian official told Drop Site that Tehran believes a resumption of the war is highly likely and that it would include operations along Iran’s coastline and potentially strikes aimed at assassinating Iranian military and political leadership. Iranian military officials say they have been preparing to resume their retaliatory attacks across the Persian Gulf and attacks against Israel. Indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are ongoing, but Trump has denounced recent Iranian proposals, saying, “they have not yet paid a big enough price.” Tehran charges that the U.S. is issuing maximalist demands and Iran has no intention of capitulating. “Project Freedom is Project Deadlock,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X on Monday, referring to the new U.S. military operations in the Strait. “Events in Hormuz make clear that there’s no military solution to a political crisis. As talks are making progress with Pakistan’s gracious effort, the U.S. should be wary of being dragged back into [a] quagmire by ill-wishers.”

On the Drop Site News livestream, Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim speak to Abas Aslani, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran about the latest developments. Aslani describes Iran’s position on negotiations, the future of the Strait of Hormuz, the current decision making process in Tehran and the economic realities facing both Iran and the U.S.

The United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday it will leave OPEC effective May 1, ending its membership in the oil cartel that dates to 1967 and removing the group’s third-largest energy producer.

Drop Site’s Ryan Grim, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, and Maysa Mustafa discuss the implications of the move.

They are also joined by Jacquline Sweet to discuss her latest investigation revealing the highest paid employees of the Israeli group running the infamous doxxing site Canary Mission.

And as Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue with daily airstrikes, shelling and demolition in the south, NYU journalism professor Mohamad Bazzi joins to discuss Israel’s 50-year war on Lebanon, Hezbollah’s increasing use of fiber optic FPV drones as a tactic of asymmetric warfare, Israel’s campaign of destruction and erasure in southern Lebanon, and more.

Uncertainty remains over whether a new round of talks between the U.S. and Iran will take place in Pakistan before the ceasefire agreement between the two countries is set to expire on Wednesday. As of Tuesday afternoon, there has been no official confirmation from either Washington or Tehran on whether the talks will happen.

Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and Jeremy Scahill discuss the current state of play, President Donald Trump’s comments, Iran’s view of the negotiations, and how developments in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend exacerbated tensions. They also play clips of Jeremy’s interview with prominent Iranian analyst Hassan Ahmadian, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Tehran University.

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The war against Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 has not gone according to plan. What was initially portrayed as a quick regime change action that would destroy the Islamic Republic and spark a domestic uprising soon morphed into a war of attrition in which Iran stunned the U.S., Israel, and international observers. Six weeks after the opening strikes that assassinated much of Iran’s leadership, it is President Donald Trump who appears desperate to find an exit. The Iran war is now at a definitive crossroads and the coming days will prove decisive.

While the U.S. and Israel have pounded Iran with massive airstrikes, killing more than 3,300 people, Tehran has inflicted unprecedented damage on U.S. military infrastructure across the Persian Gulf. It forced the evacuation of more than a dozen military bases and other facilities and repeatedly hit Israel with ballistic missile and drone strikes, despite daily claims by the U.S. and Israel that its weapons capacity had been all but wiped out. Iran’s consolidation of control over the strategically-vital Strait of Hormuz has proven a potent symbol of its ability to impact not only the global economy, but to accentuate the political and strategic crisis Trump faces.

The two-week ceasefire agreed between the U.S. and Iran on April 7 is set to expire on Wednesday. Tehran was deeply skeptical of accepting a temporary agreement with the U.S. Twice in one year, the U.S. and Israel launched massive military attacks against Iran in the middle of supposed negotiations. Iranian officials and analysts have consistently said they believe that scenario is likely to be repeated. But Iran ultimately moved forward with the Islamabad talks, after concluding that it had a stronger negotiating position than at any point since the 2015 nuclear agreement was voided in 2018 by Trump during his first term as president.

In a wide-ranging interview, Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill spoke with Iranian analyst Dr. Hassan Ahmadian, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Tehran University. Since the war began, Ahmadian has become one of the most prominent Iranian commentators in the Islamic world because of his viral appearances on Al Jazeera Arabic. He is frequently placed on debate shows where he battles as many as seven other guests and hosts. Scahill and Ahmadian talk about what Iran would be willing to accept as part of a deal with the U.S., how it could ensure that the U.S. and Israel do not renege on an agreement and restart the war, and how Iran will approach the issue of its enriched uranium stockpiles.

“Iranians do not trust the Trump administration at all. But what they’re banking on is the fact that they stood against an aggression and forced them out of this aggression, short of achieving any of their goals,” Ahmadian said. “The Iranians see that they can balance asymmetrically the power of the United States and can push it back.”

Ahmadian and Scahill discuss the internal decision-making process in Iran, debates among the political, religious and military echelons, and the role of Parliament Speaker Mohammed Baghar-Ghalibaf, Tehran’s lead negotiator in the current talks with the U.S. Ahmadian also offers a comprehensive overview of Iranian strategy and its perspective on reestablishing deterrence and regional balance in the aftermath of the U.S.-Israeli wars.

“Iran wanted to push back in a way that forces its foes to think twice and thrice before attacking Iran once more. And I think they did that. The United States will think more than once before attacking Iran,” Ahmadian said. “Name another system whose top echelon are assassinated and is capable of continuing and also waging a retaliatory war effort against two big foes. I don’t see any historical parallel to this—that speaks volumes to the institutional, institutionalized level of the [Iranian] system.”

UPDATE: Shortly after publication, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had spoken with Netanyahu and Aoun and a deal had been reached. “These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE at 5 P.M. EST,” Trump wrote.

Hezbollah MP Ibrahim Al-Moussawi told Drop Site, “We will be respecting the ceasefire,” and says the deal is based on the original agreement between the US and Iran that a ceasefire would apply to Lebanon.

Al-Moussawi’s statement that this ceasefire is based on the original Iranian deal reached with the U.S. contradicts claims by Trump and Netanyahu that Lebanon would not be included, and by the U.S. State Department that the Lebanon ceasefire be a wholly separate deal.

"They went back to the same ceasefire agreement that has been reached to in Islamabad by the Iranian initiative,” Al-Moussawi told Drop Site. "We will be respecting the ceasefire and we will deal with it cautiously, actually. And the Israelis have to abide by it completely, comprehensively in all of the Lebanese territories, including the areas bordering Palestine. And it should include total cessation of the hostilities and restraint to the movement of the Israelis to stop their assassinations. And it should hopefully be a beginning of a course of the Israeli withdrawal from our occupied territories."

As President Donald Trump tries to manufacture some form of a Lebanon “ceasefire” acceptable to the U.S.’s rogue ally Israel, a senior Hezbollah politician told Drop Site that any agreement must include a total end to Israeli bombing and a complete withdrawal of occupation forces from Lebanese territory. Ibrahim Al-Moussawi, a member of the Lebanese parliament with the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, criticized the Lebanese government for agreeing to direct talks with Israel in the midst of the ongoing, massive attacks on Lebanon that have killed more than 2,100 people, including over 170 children, since early March.

“We reject direct negotiations. Of course we don’t accept that the Lebanese go there and surrender to the dictations and to the will and to the hegemony of the American and Israeli warmongers,” said Al-Moussawi in an interview with Drop Site. “None of the conditions of Lebanon has been met, none of the requirements and the goals of Lebanon has been met. This is going to be rejected not only by Hezbollah, but by the majority of the people.”

Trump, for purely short-term strategic reasons, is pushing for a ceasefire announcement—reportedly as soon as tonight. His administration has offered full support for Israel’s ongoing bombing and ground invasion of Lebanon. But the policy has become complicated over the past week as the U.S. and Iran have engaged in backchannel talks with Pakistan about conducting another round of negotiations. Tehran has repeatedly said that failure to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon could derail any potential agreement.

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On Wednesday, the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the U.S. met in Washington, D.C., the highest level, publicly known direct talks between the two governments since 1993. Hours after the meeting ended, Trump claimed on Truth Social that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon would speak by phone on Thursday. “Trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon. It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow. Nice!,” Trump wrote.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has come under intense criticism from Hezbollah and other factions in Lebanon for authorizing direct talks with Israel while it conducts intense attacks that have forcibly displaced more than 1.1 million people—a fifth of Lebanon’s population—since early March and inflicted widespread destruction of villages and neighborhoods throughout the south. The Lebanese government has engaged in these talks with Israel without seeking a consensus from Lebanon’s diverse political factions, or allowing formal parliamentary debate, and has done so over the explicit objections of Hezbollah, whose forces would be at the center of any deal reached with Israel.

A direct call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be unprecedented and would spark mass anger inside Lebanon.

“Do not comply with Trump’s orders to make contact with Netanyahu. If you do, you will sever the last thread that still exists between us, the people, and you,” wrote Hasan Illaik, a prominent Lebanese analyst and host of a popular YouTube show, in a post on X. “If you do it, it will mean that your presidency ends in that very instant, and more dangerously, it will be an announcement that you have proceeded to implement an American-Israeli decision to destroy the country, and history will then remember you at the very bottom of the ranks.”

Lebanese officials claimed early Thursday that they had “no information” about a call, but did not explicitly deny it was under discussion. Some Lebanese analysts told Drop Site that Trump’s post may have been floated as a trial balloon to gauge public reaction. Lebanese TV later reported that Aoun had refused a call with Netanyahu. Moments after that, U.S. officials told Lebanon’s MTV that Trump planned to have Aoun and Netanyahu join a three-way call. The Lebanese presidency confirmed in a statement that Aoun spoke with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday.

Over the past several days, the Trump administration has scrambled to try to push through an agreement acceptable to Israel, which maintains that it will not end its war against Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed or defeated. Ha’aretz and other Israeli media outlets reported that senior Israeli military commanders had been told to prepare their forces deployed in southern Lebanon ahead of a truce that would reportedly take effect Thursday between 7 p.m. and midnight local time.

“I would take any ceasefire declaration on the part of the US or Israel with a huge grain of salt at this point. The talks themselves —Israeli-Lebanese and to a lesser extent, U.S.-Iranian, are starting to look more like a means of warfare through other means,” said Amal Saad, a lecturer on international relations and politics at Cardiff University in the UK who is writing a book on Hezbollah and the Axis of Resistance. “This could well be another ploy to deceive, buy time to reconstitute or give cover to the Lebanese government to quickly normalize Israel and its aggression before the fighting resumes.”

Following the talks on Wednesday, the State Department released a statement emphasizing that the aim of the meeting was to develop a framework for disarming Hezbollah and increasing cooperation between Israel and the Lebanese government.

“This is nonsense,” said Al-Moussawi. “This is something that no one can accept. This is stripping Lebanon from its points of strength. You’re talking about honorable people fighting on the front to defend Lebanon.” Al-Moussawi, the former head of Hezbollah’s media relations department, was first elected to Lebanon’s parliament in 2018. He is a journalist and academic and holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Birmingham in the UK. “I’ll tell you, as long as the occupation continues, the resistance will continue,” he stated. “And the resistance has every right to fight back if the Lebanese army isn’t equipped enough to fight back,” he added. “We should be thanked for what we are doing and not to be accused or not to be delegitimized because of this.”

When Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formally announced on April 7 that a two-week ceasefire agreement had been reached between the U.S. and Iran, he emphasized that the agreement would apply to all territories involved with the war. “I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY,” Shehbaz wrote in a post on X.

The specific mention of Lebanon by Shehbaz was significant. Iranian negotiators had repeatedly emphasized that any deal must include an end to Israel’s scorched earth attacks against southern Lebanon. Iran’s ally Hezbollah entered the war on March 2, two days after the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and had stunned the region by exhibiting a continued capacity to strike Israel and fight off invasion forces. Soon after the U.S.-Iran agreement was announced, Netanyahu said that he would not end Israel’s war against Lebanon and ratcheted up the bombing. Israel conducted one of its heaviest aerial assaults on Lebanon, dropping 160 munitions within 10 minutes in what some Lebanese have come to call “Black Wednesday.” Within 24 hours more than 350 people had been killed, and over 1,200 wounded, in Israeli attacks, one of the bloodiest days in Lebanon since the 1982 Israeli invasion.

Iran charged that the Israeli attacks and the refusal to halt its bombing “blatantly violates the initial ceasefire,” while Trump claimed Lebanon was “not included in the deal,” calling Israel’s war against Lebanon a “separate skirmish.”

Initially, Lebanese officials insisted that Lebanon should be included in the deal, but soon shifted their diplomatic language to calls for a separate ceasefire. On April 9, a Lebanese official told Reuters that Lebanon had been advocating for a temporary ceasefire on a “separate ​track but the same model” as the Iran agreement, effectively signaling acceptance of the U.S. and Israeli rejection of Lebanon’s inclusion in the Iran deal.

The State Department reiterated Wednesday that it would not abide by the terms announced by Shehbaz regarding a Lebanon ceasefire, saying in a statement that “any agreement to cease hostilities must be reached between the two governments, brokered by the United States, and not through any separate track.” Pakistan, which is the main mediator of the Iran negotiations, continues to insist that Lebanon is part of the initial deal. “Peace in Lebanon is essential for peace talks,” said Tahir Andrabi, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, at a briefing Thursday. “Israeli attacks against Lebanon constitute a grave violation of international law and fundamental humanitarian principles.” Several European nations also signed onto a joint statement endorsing the agreement and emphasizing the importance of including Lebanon.

Al-Moussawi said that the Lebanese government’s decision to capitulate to the U.S. demand for bilateral negotiations with Israel rather than insist that Trump uphold the terms of the agreement with Iran opened the door for continued Israeli attacks. “This has opened a window for the Israelis to make more massacres in Lebanon,” Al-Moussawi said. “This massacre has taken place simply because of the lack of responsibility of the Lebanese officials because they [excluded] themselves from the ceasefire that has been put as a core requirement by the Iranians,” Al-Moussawi said. “They are responsible and they are partners in the killing of their own people.”

The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, spoke to Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s legislature, on Thursday and reiterated that Iranian negotiators continue to demand the ceasefire apply to Lebanon. “We have been seriously pursuing forcing the enemies to establish a permanent ceasefire in all conflict areas according to the ceasefire agreement because for us, the ceasefire in Lebanon is as important as the ceasefire in Iran,” Ghalibaf said, according to IRIB, the official Iranian broadcast network.

Some supporters of Hezbollah were angry that Iran did not halt the negotiations with the U.S. once it became clear that Israel was going to continue its war against Lebanon in violation of the announced ceasefire framework. Al-Moussawi, however, said he is confident Iran is prioritizing a Lebanon ceasefire. “We want the result to happen, to pressure the Israelis, to pressure the Americans and this is what the Iranians are doing. The most important card in the Iranian hands is the Strait of Hormuz. And they continue to say we will not open the Strait of Hormuz unless you include Lebanon in the agenda of the ceasefire,” Al-Moussawi said. “Iran has never abandoned the Lebanese. Iran has proved to be very faithful and loyal to its allies and to its friends.”

The Lebanese government is in a difficult position. While it is the internationally recognized authority ruling Lebanon, it cannot force Hezbollah to abide by an agreement that the resistance movement rejects. Israel and the U.S. have consistently described their vision for a ceasefire as an agreement that involves Israel and the Lebanese Army jointly disarming Hezbollah. Hebrew media outlets close to Netanyahu have reported that Israel is promoting a plan to effectively create a West Bank-type structure in southern Lebanon, dividing it into three sections. Israeli forces would establish a long-term presence in a “buffer zone,” continue its military operations against Hezbollah in a second zone until the resistance group is disarmed and after which Lebanese forces would deploy. A third zone would involve Lebanese forces engaging in disarmament operations against Hezbollah.

President Aoun, in a meeting with the British Secretary for Middle East Affairs on Thursday, said Lebanon was calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon as part of an agreement for the Lebanese army to deploy in the south. “The decisions taken by the government, particularly those related to the exclusivity of arms, will be implemented in the interest of Lebanon and to ensure the protection of all Lebanese people who aspire to see their state solely responsible for maintaining security, stability, and public safety in the country,” Aoun said, according to a readout of the meeting. He added that a ceasefire would enable “the Lebanese army to redeploy up to the international borders.”

Al-Moussawi dismissed the reported Israeli buffer zone plans and said Hezbollah would never accept it. Hezbollah, he argued, is necessary because the Lebanese army is incapable of defending the country from Israeli aggression. “No one can disagree that the official [Lebanese] authorities have to have a monopoly of arms. This is one of the definitions of a state,” he said. But, he added, Lebanon “has never had an army that is equipped enough or that has the political [backing] by the leaders or the officials to defend or protect Lebanon…to fight back against the Israelis.”

Hezbollah stunned many international observers with the ferocity of its attacks against Israel when it joined the war alongside Iran in early March. Both Israeli and U.S. officials had portrayed the group as severely degraded and a remnant of its previous stature, yet it launched repeated missile attacks and has fought off Israeli attempts to impose a broader occupation in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s stance stood in stark contrast to Lebanon’s official armed forces.

In early April, as Israeli attacks ravaged southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army announced its forces had withdrawn from southern border villages, leaving residents without even the semblance of protection. “The villagers, the people of the villages in southern Lebanon—Christians, Muslims—they were begging the army to stay,” Al-Moussawi said. “But officials ordered the army not to fight back, not to protect, not to defend, but simply to withdraw.” he added, “One of the important [jobs of the] Lebanon state is to defend and protect its people. This is what the army should be.”

The day after the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, Hezbollah entered the Gaza war, opening what it called a second front against Israel. Less than a year later, in September 2024, Israel unleashed its strongest campaign of attacks on Lebanon since the 2006 invasion. It conducted an assassination campaign targeting Hezbollah officials and civilian workers with exploding pagers, massively bombed civilian neighborhoods and ultimately assassinated Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. By November 2024, over 3,800 people had been killed and more than 1.2 million forcibly displaced. That month, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement, which Israel systematically violated on a nearly daily basis, killing over 340 people in the period leading up to March 2, the day Hezbollah joined the Iran war.

After the U.S. and Israel initiated the war against Iran in February, which began with the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior political and military leaders, Hezbollah announced it was entering the war and began launching missiles at Israel. “We saw that this is the proper time for us to engage in the war and to retaliate because Israel would be preoccupied with fighting against a huge regional power, which is Iran,” said Al-Moussawi. “You’re talking about a war that has never been stopped by the Israelis. We were retaliating.”

Israel has a multi-decade track record of violating ceasefire agreements, including with Lebanon. “The Israelis say, ‘Yes, we had reached a ceasefire,’ but they continue to assassinate, they continue to kill,” said Al-Moussawi. “This is not something that Lebanon should accept, not on the resistance level, not on the official level. This is something that should come to a total stop. The Israelis should be pressured in order to respect a full ceasefire and not to be given the liberty to do whatever they want anytime, anywhere in Lebanon.”

“Without the Americans, you know, I know, everybody knows, that the Israelis cannot continue the war,” Al-Moussawi added. “It’s the American administration that should be held responsible for this. Without America, I believe we would have been released from all of this terrorism, Israel, a long time ago.”