American, Lebanese, and Israeli Officials Agree on Need To Disarm Hezbollah

“Process not an event,” is how Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the first meeting in 30 years between Israeli and Lebanese officials, conducted at Washington on Tuesday to unite the two countries against Hezbollah.The two-hour session at the Department of State united Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, with his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad. While the two countries are officially at war, Mr. Rubio’s team deliberately arranged for the two ambassadors to sit side by side, facing the rest of the dignitaries. The meeting ended with an agreement among all parties that Hezbollah must be disarmed. Pressure is growing from the likes of President Emmanuel Macron of France to link a ceasefire in Lebanon to negotiations on ending the Iran war. Mr. Rubio, though, said that ending Israel’s current fight against Hezbollah was not the reason for convening the meeting. “This is about bringing a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah’s influence in this part of the world,” Mr. Rubio said at the start of the meeting. Just like the Israelis, he added, “we have to remember the Lebanese people are victims of Hezbollah. The Lebanese people are victims of Iranian aggression.”While peace was discussed at Washington, residents of the upper and western Galilee were sheltering in safe rooms under constant Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks from across the border. Diplomacy will yield a “nice picture,” the founder of the northern Israel-based Alma Research, Sarit Zehavi, tells The New York Sun. While the session was also still unprecedented, she added, it created a “history of words, but what about deeds?”Future peace hinges on disarming Hezbollah. Israeli officials note that the government at Beirut is more open than any of its predecessors to making peace with its southern neighbor, and is publicly committed to disarming Hezbollah. The Iranian proxy, though, is making clear that it will not be bound by any agreement reached at Washington. Hoping for a better future, an upbeat Mr. Leiter said after the meeting that Israel and Lebanon are “on the same page,” united in the need to end Hezbollah’s and the Iranian regime’s stranglehold on Lebanon. He declined to comment on the possibility of a follow-up meeting, saying that he would first brief Jerusalem while Ms. Moawad will talk to her superiors at Beirut. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of Lebanon canceled a planned trip to New York and Washington, including to address the United Nations Security Council. The trip was spiked due to increased Hezbollah threats to topple the elected government over its talks with the Israeli enemy. Ending the two-hour meeting at Washington, Mr. Leiter, a confidante of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, envisioned a peace with Lebanon in which “there will be a clearly delineated border between our countries, and where the only reason we’ll need to cross each other’s territory will be in business suits to conduct business or in bathing suits to go on vacation.” Despite all the goodwill at Beirut, few Israelis believe the Lebanese Armed Forces have the capacity, or even the will to confront the terror organization that has held Lebanon under its sway for such a long time. For now, the Israel Defense Forces is battling fiercely to end Hezbollah’s presence in South Lebanon, concentrating on the terror group’s redoubt at Bint Jbeil. Washington has leaned on the IDF to limit its anti-Hezbollah operations to southern Lebanon and avoid hitting the capital, Beirut, and northeastern Lebanon.While President Trump made clear there is no linkage between ending the Iran war and a ceasefire in Lebanon, France issued a joint statement with several European countries, urging that a ceasefire in Lebanon be part of the Iran diplomacy. “It is essential” that the ceasefire in Iran is “strictly respected by all parties and that it includes Lebanon,” Mr. Macron said. France, the former colonial power, has long seen itself as Lebanon’s patron. For decades Paris attempted to appease Hezbollah, arguing there is a difference between the terrorist organization’s military and political sides. Now, though, the Lebanese government is increasingly attempting to distance itself from Hezbollah politicians and vows to disarm the terrorist group. “We certainly don’t want the French anywhere near these negotiations,” Mr. Leiter said. “We’d like to keep the French as far away as possible from pretty much everything, but particularly when it comes to peace negotiations. They’re not needed.”

American, Lebanese, and Israeli Officials Agree on Need To Disarm Hezbollah

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