Peace pact hits wall

IRAN DEMANDS LEBANON PULLOUT

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Iran’s top diplomat said Tuesday that the tentative deal to end the war with the United States would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon — a condition Israel has already rejected and that could sink the agreement, leading to the resumption of all-out war.

The deal, which is between the US and Iran, has not been made public, and officials have sometimes offered contradictory interpretations of what is in it.

While Israel is not a party to the agreement, it is part of the war: It joined the US in launching strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, and has since fought the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and seized large swaths of that country.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon would violate the deal.

‘Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,’ Araghchi said.

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss outlines of the agreement, has said the deal did not call for an Israeli withdrawal. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would remain in Lebanon ‘as long as necessary.’