Washington DC – Israel will withdraw from two areas in southern Lebanon and transfer the sites to the Lebanese military under a newly signed trilateral agreement between Israel, Lebanon and the United States reached after four days of talks in Washington.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one of the areas from which the Israel Defense Forces will pull back is north of the Litani River, while the second is south of the river. In a pre-recorded video statement on Friday, Netanyahu described the movement as leaving sites the IDF “does not need” in Lebanon.
The deal opens the door to a broader peace agreement between two countries that have never had diplomatic relations, according to a senior Israeli official. 
Lebanon’s Ambassador to the US, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, said the agreement would be the “first step on the road to restoring Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity” as it was signed.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who hosted the negotiations, struck a cautious but optimistic tone at the signing ceremony.
“Today is the beginning of the beginning,” Rubio said. “There’s a lot of work ahead. We don’t, in any way, underestimate the difficulty of the task ahead. But we understand the importance of it, how vital it is. And we are honored to play a part in bringing this together.”
The Lebanese Armed Forces will move into the two areas as part of a pilot programme tied to the latest ceasefire agreement between the two countries. The development follows a contradictory week of signals from Israel, with the Israeli defence minister having said just days earlier that the military would not withdraw from Lebanon even if the US demanded it.
Netanyahu framed the agreement as a victory for Israel, saying it would allow Israel to remain in much of the territory it occupies in southern Lebanon for as long as Hezbollah remains armed.
“This is also a major blow to Iran,” Netanyahu said. “Iran is trying to force us into a withdrawal from southern Lebanon by force. In effect, Israel, Lebanon, and the United States are telling them: this is none of your business.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun thanked the Trump administration for hosting the negotiations, saying the deal would allow the people of Lebanon to “return to their fully liberated land … under sovereignty of a Lebanese state that has no partner in its sovereignty over its land and its people,” in an apparent reference to Iran’s influence through Hezbollah.
Rubio added that “the people of Lebanon and Israel deserve to live in peace and security, but have long suffered from conflict.”
Hezbollah rejected the agreement outright. Hassan Fadallah, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s parliament, called on the Lebanese government to withdraw from the negotiations entirely.
“Whoever shakes hands with the enemy is a criminal like them,” Fadallah told the pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen news channel.
