Israel and Lebanon sign framework agreement with US in 'first step'
toward peace, Rubio says
[June 27, 2026]
By BEN FINLEY, ABBY SEWELL and MELANIE LIDMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined Israel and
Lebanon’s ambassadors to the U.S. Friday to announce a framework
agreement that was described as a first step toward peace following
months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah.
The agreement does not include Hezbollah and prompted one of the group's
officials in Lebanon to warn of civil war. The U.S. State Department
said the framework establishes a process for dismantling Hezbollah and
for Lebanon to regain territory that was taken by Israeli forces as they
battled the militant group.
The U.S. will facilitate a newly created “Military Coordination Group
for Lebanon” to implement the framework, the State Department said,
while committing $100 million in humanitarian assistance.
“For Lebanon, this Framework provides a genuine pathway out of a long
crisis,” the State Department said. “For Israel, it creates a verifiable
path to removing the persistent threat on its northern border.”
Friday's agreement was signed in front of Rubio in Washington by Yechiel
Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, and Nada Hamadeh
Moawad, the Lebanese ambassador to the United States.
Leiter said the final destination of the framework is peace between the
two countries.
“Our language is we want to embrace Lebanon," he said. "Our language is
we want to get in our car in Tel Aviv and take a drive up to Beirut, and
we want Beirut to come down and take a drive to Tel Aviv. That’s where
we’re going. That’s where we want to go.”
Leiter said that will depend on Hezbollah being disarmed and dismantled,
which will allow Israel to withdraw and Lebanon to “regain its full
sovereignty.”
“So it really depends on the Lebanese army,” Leiter said. “It depends on
the support the Lebanese army gets from the U.S. And we think it’s going
to be solid.”
Moawad said the framework “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.”
Hezbollah official says group won't give up weapons
The latest conflict began when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel days
after Israel and the U.S. launched their war on Iran on Feb. 28. Israel
invaded Lebanon and has expanded its control.
More than 4,000 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes
since March. At least 37 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon or
northern Israel during the fighting.
Lebanese officials have said that securing a withdrawal of Israeli
forces from southern Lebanon is a top priority for them in the
negotiations, while Israeli officials have prioritized the disarmament
of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The talks between Israel and Lebanon were separate from the interim deal
that was signed last week by the leaders of the U.S. and Iran to end the
fighting in the Islamic Republic. That agreement set a 60-day period for
negotiations on key issues, including the future of Tehran’s nuclear
program amid concerns that Iran wants to use it for military purposes, a
claim the country denies.
The Lebanese government had been wary of having Iran negotiate on its
behalf, and Lebanon launched its own direct negotiations with Israel
after the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. Hezbollah was not
part of the talks, which resulted in several ceasefire agreements that
were never implemented on the ground.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others watch, seated from left,
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, counselor Dan
Holler, and Lebanon's Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh, sign a
framework agreement, described as a first step toward peace
following months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese
militant group Hezbollah, at the State Department, Friday, June 26,
2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
Hezbollah is unlikely to agree to any plan that would include its
disarmament throughout the country. The group has maintained that it
is only required by previous agreements and U.N. resolutions to
disarm in the area south of the Litani River, near Lebanon’s border
with Israel.
Hassan Fadlallah, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc,
reiterated the group’s stance on Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen
TV that it rejects Lebanon’s direct negotiations with Israel and
that it will not give up its weapons.
Fadlallah said Lebanese authorities “will not be able to enforce the
agreement signed in Washington unless they go, with American
support, to civil war.” He also called the agreement in Washington
“an attempt to derail the Islamabad process,” referring to the
U.S.-Iran negotiations.
Israel establishes 'pilot zones' for Lebanon
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a statement that the
agreement “aims to achieve an Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese
territory, restore state sovereignty over it, and facilitate the
return of its citizens” and that under it Lebanon is obligated to
“extend the authority of the Lebanese state, through its armed
forces, over all its territory.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had told a visiting British
parliamentary delegation on Wednesday that a proposal for “pilot
zones” where the Lebanese army is supposed to take exclusive control
of the territory as Israeli troops will withdraw was “under
discussion pending approval from the Israeli side.”
Israel’s direct negotiations with Lebanon include discussions about
the redeployment of Israeli forces after southern Lebanon is cleared
of Hezbollah infrastructure and Hezbollah has disarmed, said an
Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because
they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video on Friday
that the framework is a “great achievement” for Israel.
“The most important thing, first and foremost, is that Israel will
remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon,” he said. “This is
a major achievement, and we will maintain it as long as Hezbollah
has not been disarmed and as long as it continues to pose a threat
to the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu said that Israel is allowing the Lebanese army to begin
preparing to take control of territory, while the Israeli military
is establishing two pilot zones.
“A small part of it is within the expanded security zone that we
secured over the past two weeks and which, the IDF has made
absolutely clear, it does not need,” Netanyahu said. “In other
words, we are maintaining the original security zone at all times,
outside the range of anti-tank missiles."
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