Israel, Lebanon Sign Framework Peace Agreement Following US-Backed Negotiations

Israel and Lebanon signed a framework peace agreement Friday following four days of negotiations in Washington, marking a major diplomatic breakthrough aimed at ending years of conflict along the two nations’ shared border.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter hailed the agreement as a turning point for the region.

“In this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in,” Leiter said during the signing ceremony.

While the full text of the agreement was not immediately released publicly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the deal as the beginning of a broader effort to restore stability and prosperity to Lebanon.

“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,” Rubio said.

“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.

Rubio acknowledged that rebuilding Lebanon would take time but called the agreement an important first step.

“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,” he said.

Lebanese Ambassador to the United States Nada Hameda said the agreement opens the door to restoring Lebanese sovereignty and ending years of violence.

The framework places 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,” Hameda said.

The negotiations came amid growing unease in both Israel and Lebanon over the separate US-Iran memorandum of understanding signed last week, which called for an end to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah despite neither Israel nor Lebanon being parties to that agreement.

Critics feared Washington was shifting its focus away from weakening Hezbollah and instead toward managing tensions with the Iranian-backed militant group.

Earlier in the week, Leiter warned that the situation was heading toward disaster.

“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.”

Leiter returned to the metaphor following Friday’s agreement.

“With a lot of hard work … we put the train back on the tracks, and it’s running in the right direction,” he said.

“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.”