Many were waiting for the answer on whether the Trump administration was willing to put its foot down to implement its own MoU; that answer has arrived.
As expected, the United States has already destroyed its Memorandum of Understanding with Iran – instead of implementing what it signed, it has sought to appease its Israeli allies by seeking to destroy Lebanon from within and legitimize the occupation of Lebanese territory.
While Washington and Tehran are still upholding that their MoU has not yet collapsed, in reality the document signed between Tel Aviv and Beirut last week has made a US-Iran agreement totally untenable.
The reason why is rather simple, but how it is now dealt with is going to determine whether Lebanon will deteriorate into a horrifying civil war, complete with foreign invasions that will seek to render it a failed State.
For reference, the following is the first clause listed within the Iran-US MoU:
“The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, and their allies in the current war, by signing this MoU, declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other, and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. The final Deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and other provisions of this paragraph.”
Since signing this document, US President Donald Trump has threatened to kill Iran’s entire negotiating team, bomb their country, and end the Islamic Republic altogether. Following this, the US military launched direct strikes on southern Iran, triggering retaliatory attacks on US bases in the region.
The US is even undergoing a military buildup in the region, not a drawdown, while escalating its violent rhetoric. Meanwhile, the Israelis were busy continuing their campaign of civilian massacres inside Lebanon and, even after the 5th ceasefire was announced in the past few months, attempted to advance deeper into Lebanese territory.
On June 26 – after US-Israeli media posturing that sought to depict a rift between the two – the United States brokered a deal between the Israeli and Lebanese governments. The deal meant that Lebanon officially recognized Israel’s right over occupied Palestine, abandoning the State’s long-held position that required the creation of a Palestinian State prior to this, while permitting the Israelis to remain occupying the south of Lebanon.
Although some have attempted to argue that the move is more symbolic than anything else, the repercussions could result in the total disintegration of the Lebanese State. What just occurred is that the US – seeing that its Israeli allies were failing in Lebanon against Hezbollah – weaponized the MoU they had signed with Iran in order to trigger the beginning of a conspiracy against the Mediterranean nation.
The Lebanon-Israel MoU openly contradicts Clause 1 of their MoU with Iran, putting it on paper that their agreement with the Iranians is totally null and void. In other words, the US has been trying to weaponize the Iran MoU in order to score a victory for their Israelis allies, who were previously restrained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threat of force.
Even better for the Israelis, they no longer have to worry about taking care of their own war and are attempting to employ the Lebanese Army, potentially alongside the Syrian armed forces and militias in both Lebanon and Syria, to fight their battles for them.
Despite the denial from Syrian leader Ahmed al-Shara’a that his men are going to be ordered to invade Lebanon, a very public amassing of forces along the Syrian-Lebanese border has been ongoing, particularly surrounding the Beka’a Valley area, considered to be Hezbollah’s military heartlands.
The Lebanon-Israel agreement created two distinct “experimental zones” in south Lebanon, where the Lebanese Army is to be deployed and Israel supposedly withdraws – one of which is in an area that Israel has not even entered yet and the other only partially where the Israelis have occupied.
In other words, the Israelis lose nothing, other than slightly repositioning their forces, while the Lebanese Army will be ordered to disarm Hezbollah on Israel’s behalf.
Tel Aviv itself failed to achieve the disarmament of Hezbollah, which means that the Lebanese Army – a glorified police force – will most certainly fail. All indications also point towards the majority of the Lebanese Army being Shia Muslims, the same sect as Hezbollah, which will inevitably result in the disintegration of the armed forces if they choose to open fire on Hezbollah.
US-puppets Nawaf Salam and Joseph Aoun, who call themselves the Prime Minister and President of Lebanon, despite having no popular mandate and it actually being Hezbollah that is responsible for even approving their rise to power, have totally betrayed their country. Treason is perhaps too light a term to describe what these officials have done, considering that Israel has killed nearly 10,000 Lebanese since 2023.
For some context, Clause 13 of the Beirut-Tel Aviv agreement stipulates that Lebanon cannot pursue legal action against Israel. Keep in mind that this means that Joseph Aoun and Nawaf Salam are committing to an agreement that both the Lebanese Cabinet and elected Parliament disapprove of, which makes it impossible for a Lebanese mother to pursue justice for the killing of her children.
The Lebanese government has, without the consent of its people, pledged not to pursue justice for Israel’s spraying of chemical substances in southern Lebanon, the deliberate ethnic cleansing of Lebanese Shia, the targeting of hospitals, schools, ambulances, civilian infrastructure, mosques, churches, UNESCO world heritage sites and the list goes on.
It has actively robbed the nation of its ability to reclaim its own territory, using Lebanese lands as a bargaining chip and pursuing a strategy that seeks to create a civil war inside the country.
Under the guise of sovereignty, the US-backed Lebanese regime discarded the gains made by Iran’s threat of force, instead permitting the interference of neighboring nations to help implement the disarmament of Hezbollah. Clause 4 of the agreement clearly outlines this and provides the basis for a Syrian invasion of Lebanese lands.
Without going into every element of the disastrous outright betrayal of the Lebanese people – at least 400,000 of whom are still internally displaced and, in the case of those from the south, have now had their villages surrendered to Israeli occupation – it is clear that what has just occurred is yet again an American-Israeli attempt to use diplomacy as a cover to do damage to Iran.
The US-Iran MoU barely even exists on paper anymore, as the newest Lebanon-Israel agreement renders its very first clause null and void. There has been no end to the war on all fronts, just the hatching of a new conspiracy inside Lebanon, while Israel refrains from escalating its bombing campaign only in order to appease Tehran and ensure they won’t respond.
In the Gaza Strip, the Israelis have even escalated their attacks, again using the Iran-US MoU as the perfect opportunity to get away with killing civilians and plotting a new campaign there.
Eventually, Iran will be forced to respond with force as their agreement with the US has become untenable. However, the longer it takes for the Iranians to act, the more wiggle room the US and Israel have to plunge Lebanon into chaos.
Many were waiting for the answer on whether the Trump administration was willing to put its foot down to implement its own MoU; that answer has arrived. As expected, the alleged “rift” between Trump and Netanyahu was all a media invention, one which had no bearing on the real world. The US chose its path; now the ball is in Iran’s court.
