Train wreck averted: Israel and Lebanon unveil US-brokered deal
Israel agrees to withdraw from two ‘pilot zones’ in Lebanon
Just two days after Israel’s ambassador in Washington Yechiel Leiter described peace talks with Lebanon as a “train wreck,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday oversaw the signing of a preliminary accord for Israel to begin a military withdrawal from parts of Lebanon’s south.
The trilateral agreement, signed Friday by Israel, Lebanon and the United States after four days of contentious talks at the State Department, commits Israel to handing over control of two “pilot zones” in the occupied areas of southern Lebanon to the Lebanese Armed Forces. The United States will vet Lebanese soldiers for any ties to Hezbollah. If the program succeeds, it will expand, paving the way for Israel’s gradual military withdrawal from Lebanon.
Rubio said the deal was significant but only the start of further talks as Lebanon now takes a greater role in fighting Hezbollah.
“It’s the beginning of the beginning,” Rubio said at the signing ceremony in Washington. “We don’t in any way underestimate the difficulty of the task ahead, but we understand the importance of it.”
Rubio said the U.S. goal was for Lebanon to return to being “a prosperous and peaceful country” where people of different backgrounds could “live and coexist side by side.” That goal, he said, would require disarming Hezbollah.
“Obviously, the people of Israel deserve to live in peace and security,” he added, pointing in particular to the country’s north, which he said was beset by terrorist attacks launched from Lebanese territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who signed off on the deal, framed it in stark geopolitical terms, calling it “a major blow to Iran.” Netanyahu said Tehran had been trying to force Israel out of southern Lebanon, and that Israel, Lebanon and the United States were now telling Iran together: “This is none of your business.”
The deal arrived 48 hours after Leiter had declared the same talks a “train wreck,” citing the June 17 U.S.-Iran MOU’s explicit provision for Tehran’s role in southern Lebanon’s future.
In a statement, Leiter on Wednesday said that while Israel supported the MOU, the document had undermined the talks between Israel and Lebanon by tying the Iran peace deal with Lebanon.
“The basic premise [of the negotiations] was that Iran is out, and that the main discussion is about Lebanon and Hezbollah, not about the extent to which Iran can restrain Hezbollah,” Leiter said at the time.
At Friday’s ceremony, Leiter acknowledged his earlier comments. He called his counterpart, Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh, a “very tough negotiator” but one who seemed driven for a lasting deal.
“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 [and] where Israel’s and Lebanon’s sovereignty will be respected, honored and protected in this performance-based trilateral framework agreement,” he said.
Hamadeh was more measured. She thanked Rubio and Leiter’s team for their cooperation over four days of talks. The agreement, she said, was “a first step 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 their land, and allowing all Lebanese to live in peace, security and prosperity.”
Not an arrival. A first step.
Hezbollah has since the start of the talks rejected any compromise with Israel, and on Friday immediately rejected the terms of the deal.
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said in a statement that the deal “amounts to unilateral, gratuitous concessions that will only undermine the country and serve the interests of the Israeli enemy.” The deal “risks creating dangerous internal divisions” in Lebanon, he said.
The deal Friday came as three more people were killed by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, bringing the total number killed since the invasion began to 4,230, according to Lebanon’s government. A further 1.2 million people have been displaced by the occupation.
Whether the train stays on the tracks depends on what happens next. The pilot zones give the Lebanese Armed Forces their first foothold of exclusive territorial control in the south. If the program expands as planned, Israel begins a gradual withdrawal. If Hezbollah moves to disrupt it, as Fadlallah’s statement suggests it intends to, the deal faces its first test before the ink is dry.
