By Lucy Papachristou

IJEVAN, Armenia, June 4 (Reuters) - When Anna Yegoyan first moved from the Armenian capital to the northern mountain town of Ijevan, she had to reach it along bumpy, potholed roads.

Years later, she points to newly paved streets and highways as proof of change under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who grew up there, and says she will back him in Sunday's election.

Armenia has become "a proper country," said the 40-year-old, who attended a rally for Pashinyan in the town of about 20,000 people. "Our place in the world is more recognisable."

JERUSALEM, June 4 (Reuters) - Israel will continue its operations on the ground in southern Lebanon for the time being and Lebanese residents forced from their homes by Israel would not be able to return, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.

His comments came a day after Lebanon and Israel said they had agreed to implement a ceasefire during talks in Washington. The deal is contingent on a cessation of fire from militant group Hezbollah.

Under the shade of recently planted poplars in northeastern Afghanistan, village leader Ghulam Ali Poya is proud to see residents rediscover the value of trees after years of wartime deforestation.

"There were forests of pistachio trees," he told AFP, gesturing to the bare mountains that surround Char Bagh's mud homes.

"During the conflicts and the civil war, they were destroyed; no one could stop the logging."

Hezbollah's chief on Thursday rejected a conditional truce announced by Lebanese and Israeli envoys, demanding a comprehensive ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal instead as he threatened northern Israel with new attacks.

Naim Qassem's message came after Lebanese and Israeli representatives in the United States agreed to a conditional ceasefire that Lebanon's president called the "last chance" for a durable end to the fighting.

June 3 (Reuters) - Lebanon and Israel have agreed to the implementation of a ceasefire, according to a joint statement with the United States released by the State Department on Wednesday following negotiations in Washington.

The ceasefire is contingent on a complete cessation of fire from the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia and the evacuation of all its operatives from the South Litani Sector, according to the statement. The two sides had agreed last month to a ceasefire but hostilities had continued.

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday backed a Democratic-led resolution aiming to stop the Iran war until hostilities are authorized by Congress, reflecting growing congressional concern, even among President Donald Trump's Republicans, over the war.

The House voted 215 to 208, as four Republicans voted with Democrats in favor of the war powers resolution.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chris Reese)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday stood by his claim that the war with Iran was over, even as deadly strikes continued.

"We're no longer conducting sustained strikes inside of Iran to degrade their military, because Epic Fury is over," Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asserting that the United States had secured victory.

The US-Israeli war, which Washington dubbed Operation Epic Fury, has engulfed the entire Middle East since the first strikes on Iran on February 28.

By Humeyra Pamuk and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will attend the NATO meeting of heads of state that is taking place in Turkey in July, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, providing a confirmation that will likely lead to a sigh of relief across the capitals of the alliance.

June 3 (Reuters) - The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday elected Austria, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe to the 15-member U.N. Security Council for two-year terms starting on January1, 2027.

A third round of voting was being heldto determine who would take the fifth available seat, the Philippines or Kyrgyzstan.

Germany, which had lobbied hard for a seat, came third for the two places contested by the Western European and Others Group, with 104 votes, against 134 for Portugal and 131 for Austria.

CAIRO, June 3 (Reuters) - Israeli strikes killed three Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, health officials said, and the Palestinian militant group Hamas said an end to such attacks was crucial to further talks on safeguarding a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Medics said one Palestinian was killed in an airstrike near the Mughraqa area in the central Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said it had struck a person acting suspiciously near forces operating in an Israeli-controlled area to remove the threat.