By BEN FINLEY and MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Secretary of State Marco Rubio along with Israel and Lebanon\u2019s ambassadors announced a framework agreement Friday that was described as a first step toward peace following months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
The officials did not share details on the agreement that was signed by Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, and Nada Hamadeh, ambassador of Lebanon to the United States.<\/p>\n
Hamadeh said the framework \u201cis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leiter said the final destination of the framework is peace between the two countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cReal peace, where both countries will live in security, where Israel\u2019s and Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty will be respected, honored, and protected,\u201d Leiter said. \u201cIn this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out. Hezbollah is out. And the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u00a0expanded its control<\/a>.<\/p>\n The talks between Israel and Lebanon were separate from\u00a0the interim deal<\/a>\u00a0that 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\u00a0Tehran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a>\u00a0amid concerns that Iran wants to use it for military purposes, a claim the country denies.<\/p>\n 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. Iran, meanwhile, insisted that its own agreement with the U.S. explicitly include a ceasefire in Lebanon. The first halt in fighting in Lebanon since March coincided with the beginning of U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n A lull earlier this week in fire between Israeli and Hezbollah forces began to show cracks after Israel said it targeted Hezbollah militants in several strikes across southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Lebanon\u2019s President Joseph Aoun told a visiting British parliamentary delegation that a proposal for \u201cpilot zones\u201d where the Lebanese army is supposed to take exclusive control of the territory as Israeli troops will withdraw was \u201cunder discussion pending approval from the Israeli side.\u201d He reiterated that the Israel-Lebanon negotiations in Washington are separate from what emerged from from the Iran-U.S. talks in Switzerland.<\/p>\n An Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media said Israel\u2019s direct negotiations with Lebanon include discussions about the redeployment of Israeli forces after southern Lebanon is cleared of Hezbollah infrastructure and Hezbollah has disarmed.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s border with Israel.<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video on Friday that the framework is a \u201cgreat achievement\u201d for Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing, first and foremost, is that Israel will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon,\u201d he said. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Netanyahu also said that Israel is allowing the Lebanese army to begin preparing to take control of territory.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are establishing two pilot zones, both based on the recommendation of the IDF,\u201d he said. \u201cThe first is entirely outside the security zone and south of the Litani River. The second is north of the Litani.\u201d<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Lebanon\u2019s President Joseph Aoun told a visiting British parliamentary delegation that a proposal for \u201cpilot zones\u201d where the Lebanese army is supposed to take exclusive control of the territory as Israeli troops will withdraw was \u201cunder discussion pending approval from the Israeli side.\u201d<\/p>\n Lidman reported from Tel Aviv. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By BEN FINLEY and MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Secretary of State Marco Rubio along with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[152361,340,42744,46488,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-376177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-framework-agreement","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-marco-rubio","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}