ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Lebanon, Israel and the United States signed a trilateral framework agreement on Friday, concluding months of negotiations to end the conflict between Beirut and Tel Aviv.
"We are happy to announce a framework agreement between the sovereign government of Lebanon and of course the government of Israel, with a mediation and support of the United States of America," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the signing ceremony, adding that the agreement "begins to put in place a framework for lasting peace and security.”
The US-brokered deal between Beirut and Tel Aviv came as Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon have been locked in confrontations since early March, when the Iran-aligned Lebanese group launched an initial attack on northern Israel, followed by hundreds of Israeli air raids on what it said were Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.
"The most important thing is that, first of all, Israel remains in the security zone in southern Lebanon," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a recorded statement after the signing of the framework, "as long as Hezbollah does not disarm, as long as there is a danger to the State of Israel."
Lebanon's ambassador to Washington, Nada Moawad, stated that the accord "is a first step on the road to restoring Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity, securing a permanent and final cessation of hostilities (and) enabling our people to go back to their land."
Israel's envoy to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said that under the deal, "Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in."
Hezbollah’s retaliation is part of Tehran’s broader response to the US-Israeli aerial campaign against Iran in late February, during which thousands of targets across the country were struck over six weeks of hostilities.
Tehran and Washington later agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8, halting fighting to allow space for talks.
Simultaneously, US-brokered peace talks between Israel and Lebanon opened in Washington in mid-April, marking the first high-level contact between the two countries since 1993 and leading to a 10-day ceasefire.
