US President Donald Trump has issued a stern warning to Iran, demanding that it immediately stop its proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble or face severe military retaliation. In a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday evening, Trump stated that Iran must rein in its “highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon”, failing which “we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder”.
The strongly worded message comes at a delicate moment when US and Iranian officials are engaged in follow-up talks in Switzerland to build upon a recent preliminary agreement aimed at ending hostilities and addressing broader regional issues.
By ‘proxies in Lebanon’, Trump referred to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. The warning follows a renewed ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which was brokered in part to prevent the Lebanon conflict from derailing the US-Iran diplomatic process. Earlier, Trump had urged Israel not to attack Hezbollah sites in Lebanon even if the terror group launches attack, in an effort to save the fragile peace deal with Iran.
Recent flare-ups in southern Lebanon had already led to the postponement of talks in Switzerland scheduled earlier, which are taking place today with the mediation of Pakistan and Qatar.
The development unfolds against the backdrop of a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this week by President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The MoU opened a 60-day window for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme, sanctions relief, reconstruction funding and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
