US President Donald Trump announced today that he has spoken, through “high-level representatives” with the pro-Iranian, Shiite group Hezbollah, receiving its pledge to stop attacks in Isra’il.
No American president has ever spoken to Hezbollah, directly or through intermediaries. The group is designated “terrorist” by the U.S.
A Lebanese official told Reuters that Hezbollah has informed the US, through parliament speaker Nabih Berri, that it is willing to stop attacks in northern Israel as long as Israel does not bomb Beirut and its suburbs.
The war in Lebanon, an outgrowth of the war in Iran, has resulted in the displacement of more than 1.2 million Lebanese due to Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since March 2, when Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into Israeli territory to support its ally Tehran.
On Saturday, the Israeli army captured the medieval Beaufort Castle and a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon. It had been preceded the previous day by Hezbollah’s fiercest attacks in northern Israel since a ceasefire was declared in April.
