Israel expects President Trump to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons in any deal reached with the country, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday, adding that Israel will not withdraw from “safe zones” in Lebanon.
Mr. Trump told reporters on Thursday that An an agreement was reached and is likely to be signed within days, although Tehran has said it has “not come to a final conclusion” on the potential deal.
In a statement on Friday, Katz said that Mr. Trump “managed the Iran deal in terms of American interests, including our shared interests with Israel, in preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.”
“We expect him to uphold this principle and other principles on missiles and terrorist proxies,” he said, adding that Israel “will not withdraw” from the so-called safe zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, where it has deployed ground forces and forced residents to evacuate.
In late March, Katz said a buffer zone would be created in southern Lebanon that would extend miles north of the Israeli border, and that Israel would retain control of the region even after its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah ends.
In May, Israel expanded the “security zone” to about 25 miles north of the border. Lebanese officials say more than a million people have been displaced.
“Israel’s deliberate acts of displacement may amount to the war crime of forcible displacement,” Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a turning point in US-Iranian negotiations. Iran has demanded that any agreement to extend the ceasefire must include an end to fighting in Lebanon and Gaza. The Trump administration has publicly sought to end Israeli operations in Lebanon, but Israel and Hezbollah have continued to fire.
As of Thursday, 3,711 people, including 132 health workers and 247 children, had been killed in Israeli attacks, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.
