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Rubio hopeful Israel and Lebanon to reach resolution in Hezbollah conflict
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that he was hopeful that the second day of talks between the Lebanese and Israeli governments would produce a plan to secure Lebanon from the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
“As I speak to you now, for the second consecutive day, and for the first time in many, many years, the leaders of the legitimate government of Lebanon and leaders from the government of Israel for the second day in a row,” Rubio said while appearing in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
“Hopefully today we’ll produce a joint statement and an action plan on a track for security in that country, independent from Hezbollah, independent from nefarious influence,” Rubio continued.
Rubio also revealed that the two sides had similar meetings last week at the Pentagon that were of the military nature.
Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in the south of Lebanon as well as limited strikes in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, threatened to derail a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran after Iranian leaders claimed they were shutting down diplomatic negotiations, citing the Israeli strikes on Lebanon.
On Tuesday the U.S. brokered a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, but, Rubio detailed Wednesday, Hezbollah broke that ceasefire.
“We had indications, multiple indications, that Israel may be considering conducting anti-Hezbollah strikes inside of Beirut. And at that moment we had reachout from the Lebanese authorities saying that Hezbollah had contacted them and said if Israel doesn’t strike Beirut, that they would stop launching missiles into Israeli territory that they would stop launching missiles into Israeli territory. That’s the message we got. And that’s what the president pursued and said, okay, I had this outreach. If you won’t do these strikes in Beirut, they’ll stop launching against you in in northern Israel. Unfortunately, within an hour or two of that conversation, they launched two waves of rockets from Hezbollah against Israel and Israeli territory,” Rubio revealed.
“One of the reasons why we’re engaged in these talks between Lebanon and Israel is understanding that Hezbollah is not just an enemy of Israel. Hezbollah is an enemy of Lebanon. They are an enemy of the Lebanese government. They have called for the overthrow of the Lebanese government. When Lebanon expelled the Iranian ambassador, he refused to leave. He said ‘I’m not leaving. You can’t expel me. Hezbollah is protecting me.’ So Hezbollah is not just a challenge to Israel. It’s a challenge to Lebanon, to the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people. And we are hopeful that we can create a paradigm in which Lebanon’s government and Israel can work together to disarm Hezbollah and allow the people of Lebanon to reclaim its country,” Rubio said
