Israel and Lebanon hailed an agreement signed Friday with the United States to pave a way towards peace on their front in the Middle East war, while Iran-backed Hezbollah warned the deal would thwart plans to resolve the broader conflict. At the signing ceremony in Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio -- flanked by envoys from Israel and Lebanon -- said the trilateral agreement "begins to put in place a framework for lasting peace and security.""It's the beginning of the beginning. There's a lot of work ahead," he said.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the framework document as a victory against Iran. Tehran argues that the Israeli conflict in Lebanon against its ally Hezbollah is inseparable from the broader war and should be part of the final settlement being negotiated by Washington and Tehran."Iran has been trying to force us to withdraw from southern Lebanon through pressure, but in effect Israel, Lebanon, and the United States are telling them: this is none of your business," Netanyahu said. "You have no role in Lebanon -- not you, not Hezbollah and not any terrorist organisation."- 'Pilot areas' -
Netanyahu said that, under the agreement, the Lebanese army would be allowed to return to two "pilot areas" to begin taking charge of parts of southern Lebanon, but that Israeli forces would remain in the security zone it has seized until Hezbollah is disarmed and displaced civilians not allowed to return. Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun also welcomed the framework, the text of which was not immediately published, as a "first step" toward allowing Lebanese civilians to return home "under the sovereignty of the Lebanese state that has no partner in its sovereignty over its land and people." "We swear to continue to work until this is fully achieved. There will be no more occupation, prisoners, subordination or tutelage," he said.But Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah MP, warned that the Washington signing was an attempt to undermine the ceasefire deal between the United States and Iran, which foresaw that the Lebanese conflict would be resolved as part of the ongoing peace negotiations.The Lebanese government, Fadlallah said, "will be unable to impose the implementation of the agreement signed in Washington unless they go, with American support, to civil war".- Gulf tensions -
