Protests broke out across Beirut on Friday after the Lebanese government signed a peace agreement with Israel and the United States — a deal fiercely rejected by Hezbollah. Demonstrators took to the streets waving Hezbollah and Iranian flags, while armed Hezbollah supporters rode in motorcades through the capital. Government troops deployed checkpoints across the city.
Under the agreement, Israel and Lebanon affirmed “the right of each state to exist in peace” and expressed their intention to conclude a lasting peace. Hezbollah, however, has demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah went further, warning that the Lebanese government was risking “a civil war.”
The deal — and the volatile reaction — marks one of the most significant and potentially destabilizing diplomatic developments in the Middle East this year.
