Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, declared Monday that the U.S.-brokered framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon "will not be implemented" and said he would work to block it in the Cabinet. Negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the deal would allow Israel to maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is removed. Berri argued Lebanon should instead rely on U.S.-Iran talks, signaling deep political resistance.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, escalated his opposition on Monday, vowing to actively block the U.S.-brokered framework agreement with Israel within the Cabinet. In an interview, Berri declared the deal "will not be implemented," arguing that Lebanon should rely on ongoing U.S.-Iran negotiations instead of the current framework.
This marks the latest in a string of increasingly strident statements from Berri over the past several days. As The Zioneer first reported on Saturday at 14:04, Berri warned the agreement could trigger internal strife and called on supporters to avoid street protests. By Monday morning, he had called the pact "10 times worse" than the 1983 accord and a "civil war trap," and then said he would work to block it in Cabinet. The evolution of source quality has also been notable: early reports on Saturday cited a single source, whereas by Monday morning The Zioneer had confirmed Berri's remarks through the pro-Hezbollah daily Al-Akhbar and Israeli media.
As The Zioneer reported on Monday, Col. (res.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, a former senior IDF intelligence officer, assessed that about half of Lebanon's political and sectarian system rejects the deal, giving it little realistic chance of implementation, and warned Hezbollah may try to bring down the cabinet.
What remains open: Berri has not specified the precise parliamentary or constitutional mechanism he would use to block the deal, and the full Cabinet agenda for discussing ratification has not yet been set.
9 developments
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Source and signal
- Internal intake