US brokers deal for limited Israeli withdrawal in south Lebanon
The deal establishes a US-facilitated military coordination group to oversee the creation of two initial pilot zones in southern Lebanon.
WASHINGTON — A US-brokered trilateral agreement on Friday sets the stage for Israel to transfer control of two areas in southern Lebanon to the Lebanese military, according to officials from both countries.
The deal followed four days of talks at the State Department centered on creating "pilot zones," where Israeli troops would gradually hand over the territory they occupied during the ongoing war with Hezbollah to the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the trilateral framework agreement would help to “restore Lebanon's sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure, and enable Israel to return to its borders once that threat to its citizens is removed.”
“There's a lot of work ahead,” Rubio said at the signing ceremony in Washington. “Today we've taken the first step, and what will be a difficult journey, without a doubt, but an important and an essential and a necessary one.”
Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh signed the agreement for their respective countries at a brief ceremony held at the State Department on Friday afternoon. Signing for the United States was State Department Counselor Dan Holler.
The Lebanese Embassy in Washington said in a statement that the framework “provides for the implementation of two pilot areas involving Israeli withdrawal, deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces, and the disarmament of non-state armed groups."
The ultimate objective is “a gradual and comprehensive withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory, the embassy said.
In a blow to the Lebanese government's basic demands, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that Israeli forces would not fully withdraw from Lebanon and that the Lebanese citizens who fled Israel's buffer zone, which stretches roughly 6 miles into Lebanon, will not be allowed to enter it. Of the two pilot zones established by the framework agreement, one is located south of the Litani River and the other to the north of it, Netanyahu said.
Rubio said a US-facilitated trilateral group for military coordination in Lebanon would be established to implement the framework. It was not immediately clear if the group would be separate from the existing deconfliction cell overseen by US Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Joseph Clearfield.
The top US diplomat also announced $100 million in new humanitarian funding for the crisis in coordination with the United Nations. Rubio also said the Defense Department would move to provide the Lebanese Armed Forces with more than $30 million in an effort to improve its ability “to more effectively establish sovereignty throughout Lebanese territory.”
Lebanon was dragged back into war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired at Israel in solidarity with its patron, Iran. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes and a ground operation in southern Lebanon that killed more than 4,000 Lebanese and displaced over 1.2 million others. More than 30 Israelis have died in the conflict, mostly soldiers.
The fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group has threatened to derail a US-Iran framework agreement calling for an end to military operations “on all fronts, including Lebanon.”
Shortly before negotiators convened Friday, Israel carried out an air raid on the outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa and dropped leaflets ordering evacuations from the southern town of Mansouri, according to Lebanese news outlets.
Hezbollah is not part of the talks and has pressed the Lebanese government to withdraw from them. On Friday, the militant group’s leader, Naim Qassem, demanded Israel withdraw its troops from Lebanon “unconditionally.”
After what she described as a “long and difficult” meeting, Hamadeh said the resulting framework was a “first step on the road to restoring Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“We put the train back on the tracks and it’s running in the right direction,” Leiter said at the signing. “The final destination: peace between our two countries.”
This developing story has been updated since initial publication.
