Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to implement a U.S.-brokered ceasefire framework contingent on Hezbollah ending its attacks, withdrawing operatives from southern Lebanon, and allowing the Lebanese Armed Forces to assume exclusive control over newly proposed security zones, as Iran simultaneously warned that renewed Israeli strikes on Beirut could trigger a “full-scale resumption” of the broader regional war. Following two days of U.S.-mediated talks at the State Department, Washington, Jerusalem, and Beirut issued a joint statement announcing that the ceasefire would require “a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire” and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives from areas south of the Litani River, while establishing “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese army would exercise exclusive control “to the exclusion of all non-state actors.”
“These steps will enable progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” the statement read, while further emphasizing that “the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments” and rejecting attempts by “any state or non-state actor” to “hold Lebanon’s future hostage” — a clear reference to Iran and its Hezbollah proxy, which has sought to tie the Lebanon conflict to ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran over the broader regional war and Strait of Hormuz crisis.
