The decision to include Lebanon in the US-Iran memorandum of understanding is a “Middle Eastern absurdity,” said Kan News’ Arab affairs analyst Roi Kais.

Kais emphasized that the move changes the balance of power in Lebanon, despite the fact that the Trump administration had been carrying out unprecedented direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in recent months.

Kais noted that the original purpose of the Israel–Lebanon talks was to strengthen the Lebanese government and shift influence away from Hezbollah and Iran toward Lebanon’s state institutions. Hezbollah opposed those talks, and Tehran viewed them as a direct threat to the influence it has spent years cultivating in Lebanon.

Now, however, the U.S.–Iran memorandum has brought the Lebanese front and the ceasefire back into the equation “through the front door.” The outcome is the opposite of what the original negotiations sought to achieve: Iran’s influence is strengthened, Hezbollah is empowered, and the Lebanese state has been weakened.

To illustrate the mood in Lebanon, Kais pointed to a political cartoon that recently went viral on Lebanese social media. The cartoon depicts longtime Shiite parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally, smiling at the new deal, while President Joseph Aoun, a Christian, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a Sunni—both associated with efforts to advance direct talks with Israel—appear dejected.

“What the Iranians got here,” Kais concluded, “is proxy terror on steroids.”

Kais emphasized that this is precisely the problem with the deal: instead of separating the Lebanese state from Hezbollah, the memorandum has placed Iran and Hezbollah squarely back at the center of Lebanon’s political arena.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)