Washington – Alex Willemyns
Israel and Lebanon have no dispute to resolve, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday. Beirut disagrees.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Rubio said Israel’s only conflict was with Iran-backed Hezbollah, not with the Lebanese government. “There’s no problem between the Lebanese government and the Israeli government,” he said. “Israel doesn’t claim any land in Lebanon belongs to them. A peace deal between Lebanon and Israel is eminently achievable.”
He called on Beirut to “challenge Hezbollah and disarm them” as the condition for any U.S.-brokered talks. “The reason why Lebanon gets attacked by Israel is because of Hezbollah,” Rubio said. “Because Hezbollah is hiding in some house, launching rockets against Israelis. This has been going on for a very long time.”
The same day, the U.N. reported the highest number of live-fire exchanges between Israel and Lebanon since the April 16 ceasefire, with 619 launches from Israel and 30 toward it. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric urged “all sides to exercise maximum restraint and uphold the cessation of hostilities.”
A U.S. official, speaking to MBN on condition of anonymity, said Washington has asked Israel to show restraint. “We think there is an opening to create real political change in Lebanon, and they are continuing to do so,” the official said, reiterating the administration’s demand that Beirut move faster on Hezbollah’s weapons. “We urge the government of Lebanon to rapidly follow through with its plan to make Beirut a zone safe from weapons.”
But whether Hezbollah can be disarmed quickly, or at all, remains an open question. Tom Nides, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel from 2021 to 2023, told MBN’s The Diplomat this week that the process, if achievable, would be long. “The Lebanese people who are living in the southern part of Lebanon, even those who are living in Beirut, are tired of this,” Nides said. “My hope is that the Lebanese government could have enough power and control over Hezbollah to force Hezbollah to disarm. Do I think it’s going to happen tomorrow? No. These are gradual processes. It takes time.”
On the ground, Israel has established a 5-to 10-kilometer security zone in southern Lebanon, which it says is necessary to protect northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks. Lebanon has called the presence a violation of the April 16 ceasefire. More than 1,200 Lebanese civilians have been killed and more than one million displaced since the conflict escalated last month. Three UNIFIL peacekeepers have also been killed.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam continued Wednesday to call for a full Israeli withdrawal, saying a timetable for that withdrawal was a prerequisite for any meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Reports that such a meeting could happen soon in Washington were, according to Salam’s office, “premature.” He did, however, signal a willingness to “further develop its plan to place all weapons under state authority,” a reference to Hezbollah’s arsenal.
With UNIFIL’s mandate set to expire in December, questions are mounting over what comes next. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, following a meeting with the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said the two discussed a possible extension of the mandate beyond December 2026, including strengthening it through rules of engagement adapted to what he called “the evolving operational context.”
Dujarric, asked to elaborate on what new rules of engagement might look like, said he could not elaborate. “The mandate is coming to an end in December,” he said. “There is a proposal for what a post-UNIFIL mandate presence would look like on the ground.” He said Guterres is scheduled to present that proposal to the Security Council in June, “taking into consideration the changing nature of what is going on the ground.” If the Council changes course, he added, the U.N. “would abide by whatever the Council would decide in its wisdom.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said Israeli forces would control a security zone in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, fueling fears that Israel’s military presence could harden into permanent occupation. Neither Washington nor the U.N. has responded directly to that possibility.
Alex Willemyns is MBN’s Washington DC correspondent. He has more than a decade of experience reporting on international relations and U.S. foreign policy.
