Tehran conditions continued talks with the US on Washington “forcing” Israel to completely end operations against Hezbollah and to withdraw from Lebanon.By World Israel News StaffIran said Sunday that the United States is responsible for forcing Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon and withdraw from Lebanese territory, making the demand a central condition for any final regional agreement.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Washington must pressure Israel to end its operations in Lebanon and pull its forces out of the country, arguing that the issue is part of the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States.The United States is responsible for “forcing” Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon and withdraw from the country, Baghaei said.He called such a step “a necessary condition for reaching a final and lasting agreement to establish stability in the region.”Baghaei said ending Israeli attacks in Lebanon and withdrawing Israeli forces from the country are among the main conditions of Iran’s memorandum of understanding with the US.Iran, he added, “wants a timetable to be set as soon as possible for an unconditional withdrawal from the occupied areas of Lebanon.”The remarks came as the US-Iran interim agreement faced mounting pressure from renewed fighting on several fronts, including the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf and southern Lebanon.Iran launched missile and drone attacks on US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain on Sunday morning after US strikes on Iranian military targets. Washington said the strikes were a response to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping near the Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran accused the United States of violating the ceasefire.The Lebanon issue has emerged as one of the most contested parts of the US-Iran understandings.Iranian officials have repeatedly said the agreement applies not only to direct US-Iran fighting but also to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.In a Farsi-language statement released earlier by Iran’s diplomatic mission in Paris, Tehran said it had viewed an end to the war in Lebanon as a requirement for ending the wider war with Iran from the beginning.“Because of the connection that the war in Lebanon and the Zionist regime’s aggression in southern Lebanon found with Iran, from the first day the Islamic Republic of Iran considered ending the war in Lebanon to be one of the requirements for ending the war with Iran,” the statement said.“When we reached the ceasefire, we announced it on all fronts, with an emphasis on Lebanon, and now it also includes ending the war in Lebanon.”“From our point of view, the two sides of the memorandum of understanding are, on one side, America and Israel, and on the other side, Iran and Hezbollah, and ending the war in Lebanon is an inseparable part of ending the war completely, and ending the war includes ending the ‘occupation’ of Lebanon.”Israel has rejected the idea that Iran or Hezbollah should have a role in determining arrangements in Lebanon.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night that Israel, Lebanon and the United States had reached a framework of understandings that would allow Israel to maintain a security zone inside Lebanon until Hezbollah and other armed groups are disarmed.“Under these understandings, the US and Lebanon have recognized Israel’s right to maintain the security zone inside Lebanon for as long as it is required for our security,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue to hold it until Hezbollah and the rest of the terrorist organizations are disarmed, and until no further threat to Israel is posed from Lebanon.”Netanyahu framed the agreement as a blow to Tehran and Hezbollah.“Lebanon, Israel, and the US are essentially saying to Iran: This is none of your business,” Netanyahu said. “You have no status here. You have no involvement and no role, not you, not Hezbollah, and not any terrorist organization.”The framework, according to Netanyahu, includes two pilot areas near the Yellow Line where Hezbollah would be disarmed and control transferred to the Lebanese army. Israel says it will retain control of the broader security zone until it determines that Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.Fighting continued despite the diplomatic push. The Israeli military said Sunday that it killed Hezbollah terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades and struck a rocket launcher in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon. Israel said the targets posed a threat to its forces.Hezbollah has rejected the Israel-Lebanon framework. The group has said it will not disarm while Israeli forces remain in Lebanon and has portrayed the agreement as an attempt to impose terms favorable to Israel.The post Iran: US must ‘force’ Israel to stop strikes on Hezbollah and withdraw from Lebanon appeared first on World Israel News.