Israel, Lebanon Strike First Major Deal in 40 Years
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- Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement at the State Department on Friday, the most significant political deal between the two countries in four decades, according to US, Israeli, and Lebanese officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
- Four days of talks in Washington, mediated by senior Pentagon and State Department officials, produced three documents: a framework agreement, a security annex, and an initial Israeli withdrawal from two "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon to be replaced by the Lebanese army.
- Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter opened the first session calling new US-Iran understandings on Lebanon "a train wreck" and questioning whether Washington was still committed to weakening Iran's influence in the country.
- The agreement contradicts US-Iran understandings reached in Switzerland, where Washington and Tehran agreed to create a "deconfliction cell" with Lebanon, Pakistan, and Qatar — a move that shocked Israeli and Lebanese officials and could complicate the fragile US-Iran truce.
- Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem declared the deal "null and void," calling it "a humiliation, disgrace, and a surrender of sovereignty," and said Hezbollah would continue its "resistance" to the Israeli occupation.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio held approximately eight phone calls with Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun since Tuesday, and Vice President Vance spoke to each leader at least once, with Rubio emphasizing the deal was important to Trump by week's end.
Why it matters: The agreement is the first Israel-Lebanon political deal in four decades, but it faces immediate rejection from Hezbollah, which called it "null and void" and could respond violently. It also contradicts recent US-Iran understandings, forcing Washington to manage competing commitments to Israel, Lebanon, and Tehran simultaneously — with the very Israel-Lebanon deal contingent on checking an Iranian role its other Lebanon policy was built to accommodate.
