Iran live updates: Trump calls GOP backers of war powers resolution 'grandstanders'

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in a statement read on TV on Thursday, saying "as long as the occupation exists, the resistance will continue."

Describing the negotiations between Lebanese authorities and Israeli part as "absurd, humiliating, and shameful" Qassem said that the negotiations are "completely rejected by broad segments of the Lebanese people."

He added that the agreement's demand that Hezbollah should leave southern Lebanon while it is under fire would mean "surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy's goals."

"The ceasefire must be comprehensive, with no separation between the south and the rest of Lebanon, and no freedom for the Israeli enemy to kill in Lebanon. As long as the occupation persists, the resistance will continue," Qassem said.

"The Washington Declaration is a roadmap for the annihilation of a segment of the Lebanese people and the enslavement of the rest. To pursue a security track under the guise of a fictitious ceasefire is like the devil's dream of entering paradise," he said.

He thanked Iran for helping Lebanon to reclaim its "land and rights" despite its own confrontations.

-ABC News' Ghazi Balkiz

President Donald Trump on Thursday called the House-approved war powers resolution a "meaningless vote," and the four Republicans who crossed party lines to advance the legislation "grandstanders" -- saying their actions were "unpatriotic."

"Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Who would do such an unpatriotic thing," Trump wrote Thursday morning in a post to his social media platform.

Trump claimed that the four Republicans know where negotiations stand between the U.S. and Iran and "should be ashamed of themselves."

-ABC News' Isabella Murray

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israeli attacks on Hezbollah will continue in southern Lebanon and that displaced Lebanese residents will not be allowed to return, despite Wednesday's agreement to implement a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Katz said that the Israel Defense Forces maintains "freedom of action," including in Beirut, where the threat of resumed Israeli strikes has caused tension between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the White House.

Katz described the agreement brokered between Israeli and Lebanese leaders in Washington this week as "a ceasefire for the removal of Hezbollah terrorists from all areas south of the Litani and the creation of a demilitarized zone, the IDF continuing its fire and activity in the area."

Katz said the IDF would remain in southern Lebanon, "including in the Beaufort area and without the return of the population," referring to the strategic Beaufort Ridge area -- where the Beaufort Castle, a historic Crusader fortification, is located -- just south of the city of Nabetieh.

Katz also indicated that the destruction of property in southern Lebanon would not stop, saying the military will continue the "thwarting of terrorist infrastructures in the area, and freedom of action for Israel with American backing to attack Beirut in response to firing on Israeli settlements and territory."

Katz said the military campaign created the conditions for this week's agreement to be reached, and "that may lead, depending on developments on the ground and our continued uncompromising stand on the interests of the state of Israel, to a political peace agreement with the state of Lebanon and, above all, to achieving real and permanent security for the residents of the north for the first time in 50 years."

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Othon Leyva

Iranian state television on Thursday broadcast the reading of a new statement purportedly written by Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since he was appointed supreme leader in March, succeeding his father -- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- who was killed in the opening hours of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

The statement was read by an Iranian cleric to the public in the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini -- the leader and founder of the Islamic Republic -- in Tehran, on the 37th anniversary of his death.

"Defending the oppressed is not only an Islamic duty, but a human and Iranian one as well. And the ruling establishment in Washington has a problem with this nation's identity, independence, and refusal to surrender," Khamenei's message read.

"The Iranian nation, with its new mission alongside the resistance front, has become a source of pride for free nations," it added.

"The [U.S.-led] hegemonic system which established Israel nearly 80 years ago does not bear a strong, independent and privileged Iran on the eastern borders of the void and fake 'Greater Israel,'" the statement continued.

Khamenei claimed that the U.S. and Israel had sustained "heavy blows" in its conflict with Iran.

-ABC News' Somayeh Malekian