U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Negotiations With Iran Do Not Extend to Hezbollah in Lebanon

“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!”

So declared President Donald Trump with regard to the representatives Iran dispatched to Pakistan to negotiate with  a U.S. team led by Vice President JD Vance and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. An Iranian delegation headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will discuss the prospects for a permanent ceasefire with its U.S. counterpart.

Since the pause in hostilities between Iran and the United States and Israel that began on April 7, the Tehran regime has insisted that the ceasefire also includes Lebanon, where fighting has intensified between Israel and Iran’s Hezbollah terrorist proxy.  The Islamic Republic has already threatened a “strong response” if Israel continues its offensive against the group.

Washington has rejected Tehran’s demand. Both Trump and Vance have asserted that Lebanon was not part of the temporary ceasefire agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the Trump administration’s position. He also instructed his government to “open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible.”  

Tehran’s insistence in including Lebanon in the temporary ceasefire is not driven by concern for the well-being of Lebanese civilians whom Hezbollah has dragged into another needless conflict with Israel. Rather, Tehran’s aim is strategic: stop Israeli military operations that have been slowly degrading the Islamic Republic’s most important proxy.

2024 Ceasefire Required Hezbollah’s Disarmament

After more than a year of fighting that began the day after the Hamas-led October 7 massacre, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a U.S and French-brokered ceasefire deal that went into effect on November 27, 2024. Under the agreement, Hezbollah was required to withdraw fighters and military infrastructure to north of the Litani River. The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) were tasked with securing territory starting in the southern Litani area as a precursor to disarming Hezbollah throughout Lebanon. In exchange, the agreement required Israel to stop offensive military operations against targets in Lebanon.

Lebanon Announces Decisions But Doesn’t Act on Them

Lebanon undertook several bold decisions during the 15-month ceasefire period, including depriving Hezbollah of the cover it had long provided the group as a “resistance organization.” Yet Hezbollah retained enough of its arsenal to make forcible disarmament militarily daunting for the LAF, and enough Shiite support — the overwhelming majority per most credible statistics — to threaten civil war. This deterred Beirut, as it always has, from acting forcibly against the group, providing it with just enough breathing room to rearm.

By all indications, the Lebanese government remains beholden to these factors. Despite proscribing Hezbollah’s military activities, ordering the arrest and deportation of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members in Lebanon, labeling the Iranian ambassador-designate persona non grataand ordering his departure, and belatedly declaring Beirut a demilitarized zone, it has been unable to implement even one of these decisions. The stasis comes despite a weakened Hezbollah’s ongoing conflict with an overwhelmingly stronger foe, Israel. The LAF even refused to act on Beirut’s orders to forcibly disarm Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah the group has defiantly continued its war and threatened to force the Lebanese State to rescind all decisions against the group and its arsenal.

The U.S. Must Stand Firm in Negotiations With Iran

There is little indication that Lebanon will behave differently if a ceasefire, whatever its nature, is reached with Israel. This is precisely why Iran wants one: Tehran seeks to preserve its most capable proxy and create better conditions for Hezbollah to regroup, rearm, and recover, all while undermining Israeli and American efforts against it.

For these reasons, the U.S. should reject any proposal at the talks scheduled for April 11 that folds Lebanon into a broader ceasefire with Iran. Washington must recognize Tehran’s true objective: not the well-being of Lebanon, but the preservation of Hezbollah.

David Daoud is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs. Joe Truzman is an editor and senior research analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal, focused primarily on Palestinian armed groups and nonstate actors in the Middle East. For more analysis from David, Joe, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDDand @LongWarJournal. Follow David on X @DavidADaoud and Joe @JoeTruzman. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.