US President Donald Trump said Iran still had 21 per cent to 22pc of its missiles left, according to an interview with NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ yesterday.
“They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say percentage wise, maybe 21-22pc of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” Trump was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Iran has reaffirmed support for its Lebanese ally Hizbollah and demanded Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon, underscoring complications facing an interim deal to end the broader conflict between the US and Iran. Iran has made a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah a condition for any peace deal with Washington to resolve the regional war, now in its fourth month, and restart shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest round of fighting between Hizbollah and Israel erupted at the start of March, two days after the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran. Hizbollah said its actions were in support of Tehran.
“This war will end only when it ends in Lebanon as well,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen late on Thursday.
“The end of the war on Lebanon must be accompanied by the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they have occupied,” he said. The comments came after Hizbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected a US-brokered pact between Israel and the Lebanese government to halt the fighting in Lebanon. The deal did not provide for an Israeli withdrawal and Hizbollah had not been party to the negotiations. Israel has kept up strikes in southern Lebanon, and has said its forces would not withdraw or halt operations in the country amid increasing friction with the US.
Hizbollah said yesterday it had carried out two attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon, including near the recently captured Beaufort Castle, while Lebanese security services said Israeli airstrikes hit towns across southern Lebanon.
Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said Hizbollah had “made great sacrifices in the recent war and it is our ally. Therefore, we support Hizbollah and remain firmly committed to our obligations toward it.”
In comments reported by the semi-official Mehr news agency, he cautioned Israel against following through on threats to resume strikes against the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
“Today we again warn this sinister regime to leave Lebanon. They should know that Lebanon will be an inseparable part of any agreement and any ceasefire.”
Lebanon’s parliament speaker and Hizbollah ally Nabih Berri said yesterday he would agree to the withdrawal of the Iran-backed group from southern Lebanon if Israeli troops simultaneously left territory they occupy in the country.
In Washington, Trump told reporters he believed progress was being made in Lebanon and the country deserved to have peace. Along with Lebanon, residents of Gaza, northern Israel and Kuwait have all been under fire this week, despite US-arranged ceasefires that Trump said involved “shooting in a more moderate manner,” rather than a total halt to fighting. Yesterday, Iran’s navy said it had fired warning shots at US destroyers in the Gulf of Oman to counter “maritime mischief and harassment and the hijacking of commercial vessels and oil tankers”. Earlier, US forces said they had boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean and said they would continue to block “vessels providing material support to Iran”.
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