On 26 June, Israel, Lebanon and the United States signed a trilateral framework agreement in Washington intended to end the conflict along the Israeli-Lebanese border and establish a path towards a comprehensive peace. At the signing ceremony, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the accord as “the beginning of the beginning,” while Lebanon’s ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad called it a first step towards restoring sovereignty and enabling displaced civilians to return. Israel’s envoy Yechiel Leiter declared that under the deal “Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in.”

The 14-point text, released by the US State Department, commits both states to “conclusively end the conflict” and formally terminate any state of war. It establishes a reciprocal, phased process: the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are to restore effective sovereignty over all Lebanese territory, contingent on the verified disarmament of non-state armed groups and the dismantling of their infrastructure. This, in turn, is to enable the Israel Defense Forces to “progressively redeploy out of the Lebanese territory.” Two initial pilot zones have been agreed, where the LAF will assume full security responsibility after disarmament is confirmed, allowing internationally supported reconstruction and the return of civilians. The United States intends to verify and support the process, and has pledged $100 million in humanitarian assistance and $30 million to reimburse the Lebanese army for capacity-building.

The positions of the parties reveal the agreement’s fragility. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israeli forces would remain in a security zone until Hezbollah is disarmed, and that the military would allow the LAF to take control only in the two pilot areas. Lebanese government officials, including President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, emphasised that the framework must lead to a full Israeli withdrawal and the restoration of state authority. Hezbollah rejected the accord: its leader, Naim Qassem, insisted Israel “must leave unconditionally,” while MP Hassan Fadlallah warned that US-backed implementation would push Lebanon towards civil war. Iranian state-aligned media described the framework as a plan to disarm Hezbollah, with Fars News Agency calling it a “satanic agreement.” Tehran had not issued an official reaction.

The agreement follows five rounds of direct talks in Washington, initiated after Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the broader Middle East war on 2 March with rocket fire aimed at Israel, in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes. Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion, displacing over a million Lebanese and killing more than 4,200, according to Lebanese authorities. A truce announced on 17 April failed, and a fragile ceasefire declared this month remains tenuous. The framework now mandates the immediate establishment of working groups to draft a comprehensive peace and security agreement, and a US-facilitated military coordination group to oversee implementation. The next concrete steps are the formation of these groups and the beginning of verified disarmament in the pilot zones, though divergent interpretations of the sequencing of withdrawal and disarmament are likely to dominate the coming negotiations.