Israel and Lebanon agree to renew truce, create ‘pilot’ zones where Hezbollah is banned

Israel and Lebanon agree to renew truce, create ‘pilot’ zones where Hezbollah is banned

Emanuel Fabian

After talks in DC, Lebanon agrees its army will take full control of specified security areas, though unclear how they will be created; sides agree ceasefire dependent on halt to terror group’s activity

Israel and Lebanon agreed on Wednesday to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah terrorists would be banned.

In a joint statement released after a fourth round of US-mediated talks at the State Department, the two sides said the ceasefire “is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives” from areas south of the Litani River. It was not immediately clear how the security zones would be established, but the agreement calls for the Lebanese army to take full control of those areas.

“These steps will enable progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” the statement said. “All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments. They rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon’s future hostage.”

The latter was a reference to Iran, which supports Hezbollah and has insisted that Israeli attacks on Lebanon be halted as part of a tentative agreement with the US to end the conflict with Iran. Hezbollah is not part of the Israel-Lebanon talks.

The two countries do not have ties and have been formally in a state of war since 1948. Israel and the US want to see Hezbollah disarmed, an objective shared by the Lebanese government but rejected by the Iran-backed terror group.

The fresh announcement suggested that Trump’s declaration on Monday that Washington had brokered a fresh truce between Israel and Hezbollah, after the one reached in April unraveled, did not extend beyond halting Israel’s planned operations in Beirut, as IDF strikes continued in southern Lebanon and the Iran-backed terror group continued launching rockets and drones at Israel.

Israeli leaders had threatened that the Israel Defense Forces would target Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, if the Iran-backed terror group targeted Israeli communities.

The new announcement also appears to attempt to separate efforts to reach a deal to end the conflict in Lebanon and the war with Iran. Tehran has insisted on tying the two, as it seeks to protect its Hezbollah proxy and continue influencing events in Lebanon. While the US and Israel have pushed back against such linkage, Washington’s effort on Monday to secure another Lebanon truce announcement just hours after Tehran threatened to abandon talks appeared to undercut those efforts.

Washington’s push for a new ceasefire came as the previous ceasefire brokered on April 16 had largely evaporated, with Hezbollah keeping up its relentless rocket and drone attacks and the Israel Defense Forces pushing ahead with an expanded ground operation and widening airstrikes.

Before the announcement, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that in Lebanon, “there is no ceasefire for our forces,” during a visit to the Haifa Naval Base on Wednesday.

“We are working to maximize the freedom of action that has been granted to us and will seize every opportunity to remove threats to the citizens of Israel and to our forces,” he said, in remarks provided by the IDF.

Zamir also said that the Israeli Navy is becoming “an additional long-range strategic arm” of the military.

“Upon assuming my position, I directed the strengthening of the Navy as an additional long-range strategic arm of the IDF. We are now accelerating the implementation of the operational concept,” he said.

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