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After Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement brokered by the US following months of direct negotiations, protesters took to the streets of the Lebanese capital to express their anger at the deal, Al Jazeera reported.
Many of the demonstrators waved Hezbollah flags, which has been militarily confronting Israel in southern Lebanon. Israel and Hezbollah have been in fisticuffs since October 2023, with varying levels of intensity, but the former has twice escalated the conflict - first in September 2024 and then nearly four months ago. Protesters critiqued the framework, which does not force the Israeli army to withdraw from the areas it occupies, have been those most deeply impacted by Israel's war, which has killed more than 4,200 people and forced scores of people from their homes since early March, Al Jazeera reported. The Israeli strikes on March 2 came after Hezbollah fired on Israel for the first time in more than a year following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli air attack on Tehran. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem declared the agreement "null and void", calling it "humiliating, shameful, and a surrender of sovereignty", while Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah lawmaker, warned of "internal conflict" in Lebanon. Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon's parliament and head of the Amal Movement party, said that the framework agreement signed this week between Israel and Lebanon is "contradictory and impossible to implement," as per Al Jazeera. "This agreement will not pass, and it will not be implemented in its current form," Berri said in a statement shared by his party, adding that it was "an agreement of 'dictates', not an agreement that preserves Lebanon's rights. This agreement was designed to sow discord between the Lebanese, which I categorically reject," he said, as quoted by Al Jazeera. (ANI)
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