Israel and Lebanon signed a framework peace agreement on Friday — icing out Iran and its proxy group Hezbollah — following four days of negotiations in Washington.
“In this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in,” Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said at a signing ceremony.
While the text of the agreement was not made public, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the agreement as a “first step” to returning Lebanon to its prior prosperity before Hezbollah moved in and promoted terrorism.
“The people of Lebanon have suffered tremendously now for decades as a result of outside interference in their affairs of countries trying to use the country as a launchpad for attacks, and this is not what the people of Lebanon want. That’s not what they deserve,” he said.
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“What they deserve to have is what they once had — and of which there is recent history of — and that is a prosperous and peaceful country, a diverse country where people of different backgrounds were able to live and coexist side by side in many ways was the envy of the region and of the world,” he continued.
“It will take a lot of work and some time to get back to that point, but we believe today is the first step in that journey.”
Lebanese ambassador Nada Hameda said the agreement put Beirut on the “road to restoring Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity, securing a permanent and final cessation of hostilities, enabling our people to go back to our land.”
The latest round of talks came amid growing concerns in Israel and Lebanon with the US-Iran memorandum of understanding – and that the US may be shifting away from weakening Hezbollah and toward managing tensions with the Iranian-backed terror group.
The MOU signed last week by President Trump calls for the end of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon – even though Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah were not parties to the agreement.
The concerns led Leiter to make a bold statement on the first day of talks, declaring “we are heading toward a train wreck.”
“Four rounds ago, we all boarded the same train. We sat in the same carriage and set out toward the same destination, with the United States serving as the locomotive pulling us forward,” he said Tuesday.
“That train was moving toward a very clear goal: a comprehensive peace between our countries— an Iran-free Lebanon, free from its malign influence; the dismantling of Hezbollah; and peace and security for both Lebanon and Israel.”
He continued the metaphor on Friday, stating, “With a lot of hard work … we put the train back on the tracks, and it’s running in the right direction.”
“Final destination: peace between our two countries, real peace where both countries will live in security, where Israel’s and Lebanon’s sovereignty will be respected, honored and protected.”
