Israel, Lebanon agree to framework of deal for “lasting peace and security”

Israel and the government of Lebanon have agreed to the framework of a deal to bring “lasting peace and security” between the neighboring countries, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday.

“Today is a good day in that we are happy to announce the framework agreement between the sovereign government of Lebanon and, of course, the government of Israel, with the mediation and support of the United States of America, that begins to put in place a framework for lasting peace and security,” Rubio told reporters at the State Department after several days of negotiations between the two sides.

However, the negotiations did not include Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia that has been involved in the fighting against Israel in southern Lebanon. A previous deal between Israel and Lebanon was quickly rejected by Hezbollah.

Rubio referred to the deal as “the first step” in the pursuit of a lasting peace.

“The people of Israel deserve to live in peace and security. The people of northern Israel in particular, who have been targeted repeatedly by terrorist attacks launched from the territory of Lebanon, but not by the Lebanese people, not by the Lebanese government, but by an outside actor who has sought to use that territory to target innocent civilians who have been unable to live in these places for a long time,” he said, referring to Hezbollah.

It was not immediately clear how the trilateral framework agreement was any different than the ceasefire agreement already in place between Lebanon and Israel, which has been repeatedly defied by Hezbollah with daily attacks against an Israeli military it says is occupying sovereign territory.

Israel’s prime minister’s office released a statement saying it will “maintain its security zone along the Yellow Line in Lebanon until the day when Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations in Lebanon are disarmed and no longer pose a threat to the territory of the State of Israel from Lebanon.”

That would seem to directly contradict Hezbollah and Iran’s assertion that Israel withdraw from Lebanese territory in order to further negotiate a lasting peace deal with the U.S.