Israel, Lebanon and the United States signed a framework toward peace on Friday, capping four marathon days of talks in Washington and pulling the fate of the conflict in Lebanon away from the Iranian regime.
“For Lebanon, this Framework provides a genuine pathway out of a long crisis. For Israel, it creates a verifiable path to removing the persistent threat on its northern border,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement after announcing the U.S.-mediated agreement.
According to a copy of the 14-point framework obtained by MS NOW, Israel and Lebanon declared their intent to “conclusively end the conflict” and committed to a “reciprocal, sequenced process, with clear conditions” for the Israeli army to progressively withdraw from Lebanon pending the verified disarmament of Iran-backed Hezbollah militants by the Lebanese Armed Forces.
“What is so meaningful and important with this round is the fact that these parties were able to tear this track away from the Iranian regime’s grip, because the Iranian regime is repeatedly trying to use Lebanon as its bargaining chip,” Hagar Chemali, co-founder of the Lebanon-Israel Peace Alliance and former National Security Council Middle East director, told MS NOW. “It represents the will of the Lebanese and Israeli peoples rather than the desire of a nefarious actor that only wants to use Lebanon as a launch pad for war.”
Among other resources, the U.S. is committing $100 million toward the peace effort in humanitarian assistance through the United Nations and $30 million for the LAF under existing Pentagon appropriations, the State Department said.
The fifth round of political and military discussions went into an unexpected fourth day after needing more time to hammer out the fine details regarding the implementation of pilot security zones, two sources familiar with the peace talks, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations, told MS NOW.
The framework maintains Israel’s presence in southern Lebanon while establishing two initial pilot zones, mutually agreed upon by Israel’s and Lebanon’s militaries, allowing Lebanese forces to gradually assume full security responsibility after disarming and dismantling Hezbollah. It also calls for international support, particularly from Arab partners, in helping the Lebanese government to exercise full sovereignty over its territory and rebuild the country.
“The agreement facilitates Israel’s continued presence in a security zone until such time that the Lebanese army is strong enough, and supported enough by the United States, in order to assume full responsibility over Lebanese sovereignty,” Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told reporters Friday. “This will be a staged and performance-based move forward. To the degree that the Lebanese army performs in dismantling and disarming Hezbollah, we will proceed with additional pilot zones and the ultimate determination of an internationally recognized, secure, and agreed upon border.”
Rubio — who briefly joined the talks on Friday — announced the agreement, saying both Israel and Lebanon deserve “ever lasting peace and security.”
“The people of Lebanon have suffered tremendously now for decades as a result of outside experience in the affairs of countries trying to use the country as a launch pad for attacks, and this is not what the people of Lebanon want, and that’s not what they deserve,” Rubio said.
