A day after President Trump announced a potential deal with Iran, Lebanon found itself in a familiar position — waiting on outside powers to determine whether the latest war to devastate the country was drawing to an end.
After Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, fired on Israel in March in solidarity with its patron, the country was dragged into a conflict that has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
A U.S.-brokered cease-fire took effect on April 17, but Israel and Hezbollah have continued to clash, with each side accusing the other of violating the truce. The fighting has escalated in recent weeks, exposing the limits of the cease-fire and stoking fears that the conflict could turn into yet another full-blown war.
On Sunday, Lebanon hoped that the agreement announced by Mr. Trump could bring a degree of calm after months of intense upheaval.
While the terms of the agreement are murky, three senior Iranian officials told The New York Times that it would halt the fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon. Even so, skepticism over what that could mean was widespread after two cease-fires in two years did little to pacify the conflict.
The first of two full-blown Israel-Hezbollah wars over the past three years began in late 2023 after Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions in support of its ally, Hamas, the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israel signaled its intent to continue its military campaign in Lebanon.
An unnamed Israeli government official said in a written statement issued to reporters that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told Mr. Trump on Saturday that Israel would not compromise on its freedom to act against all threats, including in Lebanon. He added that the president reiterated his support for this.
Iran has repeatedly demanded an end to Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon as part of an agreement.
After the nominal cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024, Israel continued striking Hezbollah infrastructure and personnel in Lebanon in an effort to degrade the group’s military capacity. Hezbollah largely held its fire until the U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran began in late February.
In the months since, Hezbollah has demonstrated that it has retained its ability to fight.
If Lebanon is included in a U.S.-Iran deal, “Hezbollah will likely spin it as a victory or proof that Iran remains powerful and is the only one that can push the U.S. to force Israel into a cease-fire,” said Paul Salem, a former senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
“That will strengthen their resolve and confidence that Iran is not fading away in the region and that will make them harden their line internally,” he added.
The possible U.S.-Iran agreement comes at a precarious moment for Hezbollah in Lebanon. The group has faced a mounting public backlash after dragging the country into two wars with Israel in a little more than two years.
Even within its support base, there is a simmering frustration with the repeated devastation the wars have wrought and the group’s inability to provide financial support at the same level that it had in years past to compensate for that destruction.
The Lebanese government has tried to use that discontent to loosen Hezbollah’s grip on the state, which the group has consolidated over four decades.
But an agreement that includes Lebanon would probably embolden Hezbollah and might make it more difficult for the Lebanese government to diminish its sway, Mr. Salem said. “It will be hard for the government to move in any major way against Hezbollah,” he said.
Despite Lebanon’s rare diplomatic talks with Israeli officials in Washington in recent weeks, there was no illusion on Sunday that the state was involved in crafting the deal that concerned its own future.
On social media, memes and caricatures circulated showing President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of Lebanon waiting for calls from Mr. Trump to find out what the United States and Iran had decided regarding the war in Lebanon.
And within Lebanon, the fighting continued. Israel published new evacuation warnings on Sunday for at least 10 villages in Lebanon ahead of another bombardment and the thrum of a drone reverberated across the capital, Beirut. Hezbollah also claimed at least seven attacks on Israeli military targets in Lebanon.
Adding to the uncertainty, it is unclear whether and how any deal would address the fundamental issues at play in the war in Lebanon. These include disarming Hezbollah and Israeli troops withdrawing from the Lebanese territory they occupy along the border that stretches as much as six miles into the country.
If Israeli troops remain, it could further entrench Hezbollah, whose stated mission is to oppose Israeli occupation.
In a televised memorial service for a Hezbollah fighter, Hassan Fadlallah, a lawmaker for the group, stressed the need for “internal cooperation” between Hezbollah and the state. Hezbollah remained ready to confront Israeli forces “no matter what the challenges are,” he said.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.
Christina Goldbaum is The Times’s bureau chief in Beirut, leading coverage of Lebanon and Syria.
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