Israel, Lebanon Sign Framework Peace Deal After US-Mediated Talks

Reuters

Israel-Lebanon peace deal signing.

Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement in Washington on Friday following several days of talks to secure an end to fighting ‌between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

Lebanese Ambassador Nada Moawad and her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter signed the trilateral document with the U.S. at the State Department in Washington.

"Today we've taken the first step in what will be a difficult journey, without a doubt, but an important and an essential and a necessary one," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said before the agreement was inked.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah broke out when the armed group fired at Israel on March 2, days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. The Hezbollah attacks triggered Israeli air and ground attacks that have killed more than ⁠4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million.

The officials did not provide details of the framework deal and did not say how its terms would differ from those included in an 16 April ceasefire deal that preceded several rounds of US-brokered Israel-Lebanon talks.

"The trilateral framework we signed today is a first step on the road to restoring Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity, securing a permanent and final cessation of hostilities, enabling our people to go back to their land, and allowing all Lebanese to live in peace, security, and prosperity," Moawad said.

Leiter praised Moawad for negotiating like a "lioness."

"In this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in," he said.

The talks in Washington have included discussions on a proposal for Israeli forces to hand some of the territory they occupied in southern Lebanon to Lebanon's military.

Source: Reuters



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