TEL AVIV, June 24. /TASS/. Israel will not withdraw troops from southern Lebanon even if the US demands that it do so, Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

"Even if the United States demands it, we will not pull out from southern Lebanon," the Kan radio station quoted him as saying.

Katz stressed that Israel is adamant that Lebanese civilians will not be allowed to return to areas under the Israeli army’s control. "As many as 200,000 people will not return. There are no civilian residents nor terrorists now, and we won’t allow things to return to what they were. When civilians were there, improvised explosive devices kept popping up and [Israeli] soldiers kept coming under attack. We will not back down," he noted.

Earlier, Iranian representatives in talks with the US demanded a complete ceasefire in Lebanon and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the country, warning that otherwise, Tehran would once again close the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic. The Israeli authorities, in turn, stated that they would not pull troops out of Lebanon as long as the Jewish state continued to regard Hezbollah units as a threat to its northern areas, and added that the Israeli military was still holding positions in Southern Lebanon and remained free to act to eliminate emerging threats.