US President Donald Trump has threatened military action against Iran if it fails to rein in Hezbollah amid ongoing peace talks.
Washington: US President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran if it did not stop Hezbollah from “causing trouble” as peace talks between senior US and Iranian officials began in Switzerland on Sunday.
The talks came against the backdrop of recent clashes between Israeli forces and Tehran’s ally Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, threatening to derail a preliminary peace deal between Tehran and Washington.
“Iran must immediately stop its highly paid proxies from causing trouble in Lebanon,” Trump posted on his Truth social platform. “If they don’t do this, we will strike Iran again with great force, just as we did last week, even more forcefully!!!”
At least 30 people were killed in Israeli air strikes in eastern and southern Lebanon on Saturday, before fighting subsided that evening when Israeli forces were ordered to cease clashes with Hezbollah.
The memorandum of understanding signed on Wednesday between the United States and Iran provides for a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
At the start of talks in Switzerland on Sunday, US Vice President JD Vance said he had seen “great progress over the past few days in securing a ceasefire in Lebanon.”
“We are all working towards regional peace,” he said. “I feel really good about where we are in Lebanon. There’s still some extra wood to cut but we’ll keep working on it.”
Vance stressed that Trump and the United States have done more to defuse the conflict in Lebanon in recent months than any other country.
