Israel must ensure northern security “at any cost” and hold territory up to the Litani River, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit) told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, amid criticism over the emerging US-Iran agreement and its potential impact on Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
“We do not need to declare what comes next, but rather to carry out the next required action,” Eliyahu said, adding that the next action “will come through surprises, not declarations.”
“There is no doubt that, for now, we must hold the territory up to the Litani River and ensure, at any cost, the security of Israel’s northern border communities,” he explained.
An Iranian promise: 'IDF will withdraw from Lebanon'
Eliyahu’s remarks came as numerous government ministers have continued to criticize the emerging US-Iran agreement, and amid reports that Hezbollah has received assurances from Iran that it will demand a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in the next phase of talks with the US.
Regarding reported Iranian statements on Lebanon, Eliyahu warned that, “If Iran wants to try to be Hezbollah’s protector, I would suggest they remember what happened to Hezbollah when it tried to be Hamas’s protector.”
Eliyahu also told the Post that it was his “sincere hope” that President Donald Trump had not said “his last word” regarding the deal.
He added that he hoped Trump remembered “the lessons of history, from which we learned that when civilization is required to choose between the disgrace of an agreement with evil and a war against evil, and in the end the agreement prevails, the final outcome is both disgrace and war.”
Government ministers have called for Israel to maintain freedom of action over military operations amid the emerging Iran-US deal. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said on Monday that Trump’s agreement “does not bind us.”
He added at a party press conference in the Knesset that “The State of Israel must not accept a ceasefire between the United States and Iran.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the agreement “bad for Israel and the entire free world.”