Melissa Clarke: Hezbollah has rejected the renewed ceasefire deal announced by the United States, Israeli and Lebanese governments, insisting it would amount to a surrender to Israel. The fighting in Lebanon is of keen interest to the government in Iran, which is continuing to make an end to fighting there a condition for a deal with the US to end the broader regional conflict. Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran is in Jerusalem. Matt, what is the rationale behind Hezbollah's decision here?
Matthew Doran: Well, Hezbollah, we do need to remember, is not actually part of these negotiations between the US, the Israeli government and the Lebanese government. So they're already on the outer, if you will. But Hezbollah is saying that no country should be able to force another country's citizens to lay down its weapons. And they're effectively saying that the way this deal has been crafted, it's not with the entire backing of the Lebanese population and on that it is tantamount to a surrender by these resistance groups in favour of what Israel is demanding here. So it's not an entirely surprising position that we've heard from Hezbollah there, but it certainly does put a spanner in the works when it comes to looking at an ongoing peace deal in Lebanon. Because the way that this ceasefire was crafted, it was reliant on Hezbollah stopping its attacks against Israel for this to get over the line. And it sort of followed a very similar rationale or a very similar wording to previous deals we've seen in this place, putting a lot of the pressure on Hezbollah to withdraw from parts of southern Lebanon, putting a lot of emphasis on the Lebanese government moving into those areas and helping to enforce the disarmament of Hezbollah. But certainly Naim Qassem, the leader of the militant group, is saying that that is not going to happen and that his government isn't going to be dictated to by other countries.
Melissa Clarke: And Matt, what does this mean for the efforts to have a broader peace deal or continued extended ceasefire between Iran and the US and Israel?
Matthew Doran: We know that Iran is watching this very, very closely because it is really digging its heels in here and saying that there needs to be an end to the fighting in Lebanon as part of any broader peace deal with the United States. The IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have made that quite clear. And this really harks back to what Iran was demanding some time ago when these ceasefires were first announced. We know that Donald Trump continues to say that there is progress being made there on a deal with Iran, but he said that over and over again and no deal has eventuated. And of course, the option for ongoing or return to military action is still on the table when it comes to what Trump is looking at here, although his ability to do so may be slightly curtailed because the US Congress is looking at these war powers and whether or not he needs to get congressional approval to launch those sort of strikes. He has said that he should be able to act in the way that he sees fit. The lower house of the Congress has passed this motion saying that Congress needs to give its approval to go down this line. That hasn't been agreed to by the Senate at this point. And certainly Donald Trump is very much against those powers being put through saying it's something of a stunt in this whole process.
Melissa Clarke: Matthew Doran in Jerusalem there.