WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he spoke with Iran-aligned Lebanese militia group Hezbollah through intermediaries and secured a pledge that it would not attack Israel.
Trump said he also spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel has agreed to pull back any troops that were preparing to attack southern Lebanon.
No U.S. president has ever spoken with Hezbollah, with or without intermediaries. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
“I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop.”
A Lebanese official told Reuters that Hezbollah had informed the U.S., through Lebanon’s parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, that it was willing to halt attacks on northern Israel in exchange for Israel sparing Beirut and its suburbs any strikes.
The fighting in Lebanon has been the broadest spillover of the Iran war, displacing more than 1.2 million Lebanese through Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since March 2, when Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into Israel to back its ally Iran.
In the latest advance, Israeli troops on Saturday seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, the military said. That occurred a day after one of the heaviest days of Hezbollah fire toward northern Israel since the April ceasefire, prompting school closures and restrictions.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Maya Gebeily in Beirut, David Ljunggren and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Cynthia Osterman)
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