‘The only issue is Hezbollah’: Iran’s role in Lebanon proves sticking point in talks

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The Trump administration is sending mixed signals on the role Iran plays in Lebanon, with the Islamic Republic inserting itself into Israeli-Lebanese talks to preserve its proxy military force Hezbollah.

Israeli and Lebanese officials are holding direct talks in Washington, D.C., this week, marking a fifth round of negotiations after the first started in April, though they initially did a good job of boxing out Iran.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday that the U.S.-led talks between Israel and Lebanon are separate from U.S. talks with Iran, adding that the administration will discuss directly with Iran its support for Hezbollah.

But in a call to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun earlier this week, Rubio and Vice President Vance said Iran will be part of a “de-confliction” cell to monitor a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, with Qatar and Pakistan also serving as mediators.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has not stopped, although it has diminished.

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, issued a blunt warning on Tuesday that Israel-Lebanon talks are “headed toward a train wreck” after Iran was given power to exercise influence.

“The only issue is Hezbollah. Hezbollah must be defeated and removed from the equation,” he said. “Instead, there is a real danger that Hezbollah has been given a shot in the arm. It certainly has been emboldened.”

Edward Gabriel, president and CEO of the nonprofit American Task Force on Lebanon, said Iran has no business being part of a deconfliction mechanism, which was originally conceived during a November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The original mechanism was supposed to have Israel communicate Hezbollah ceasefire violations to the Lebanese army and for them to take action. The mechanism floundered, however, and Hezbollah renewed attacks on Israel in March amid the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

“I mean, what authority does Iran have when it comes to deconflicting between Lebanon and Israel? I do not understand that,” Gabriel said. “I think it would be a bad move for the United States to involve Iran in such a mechanism.”

Likewise, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Yousseff Raggi on Tuesday said the Israel-Lebanon track must be separate from the U.S. talks with Iran in a statement alongside the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas.

“I reaffirmed the need to keep the Lebanese track separate from the United States-Iran dialogue and stressed that decisions concerning Lebanon can only be made by the Lebanese State,” he said.

Israeli officials and researchers are warning that the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU) and ceasefire have allowed Hezbollah to regroup and limited Israel’s ability to respond.

“The ceasefire is all about the IDF [Israel defense Forces] being responsive rather than proactive,” said Sarit Zehavi, founder and president of Alma, an Israeli institute specializing in security challenges along the Lebanese border.

“Meaning that we are not stopping the rehabilitation of Hezbollah, which is very unfortunate and problematic.”

President Trump, in a social media post on Monday, warned he would restart attacks against Iran unless it reins in Hezbollah. But he also suggested he would put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his refusal to withdraw from southern Lebanon.

“I’m a problem solver, I get problems solved real fast — including with Bibi,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, using the prime minister’s nickname.

One goal of the Israel and Lebanon talks this week is to create a “pilot zone,” where Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) can exercise security in southern Lebanon so that the Israeli military can retreat from its position, more than six miles into the country.

Rubio on Wednesday said the U.S. needs to help build up the LAF’s capacity to secure these pilot zones.

Mona Yacoubian, director and senior adviser of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S. support for Beirut is critical if there’s going to be any chance at pushing back against Iran’s efforts to reassert itself in Lebanon.

“In order to try and address all of these conflicting challenges, the one through line in my view that would make it work is a strong, sovereign, central government in Lebanon,” she said.

“I would argue there is a workable solution here. It is a strong Lebanese government that can ideally assuage Israel’s concerns about Hezbollah, that can assert itself and address the issues around disarmament and also minimize Iran’s influence in Lebanon.”

Fadi Nicholas Nassar, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said Iran and Hezbollah are feeling emboldened with the MOU text imposing a ceasefire in Lebanon, but that it’s important for the U.S. to capitalize on the very real material losses both sides have suffered over the course of the wars between 2024 and today.

“Lebanon is actually an arena where Washington has its biggest win if it views it as a prize rather than a concession that it could just give away to Iran,” Nassar said.

He argued for the administration to play up the provisions in the MOU that call for respecting Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“That word sovereignty requires the Lebanese state having a monopoly on force. The disarmament of Hezbollah is key to Lebanon’s sovereignty, it’s the very definition of what sovereignty is,” he said.

“So I do think again Washington has the language there that we can use, but it comes down to its will. Is it willing to see that opening or not?”

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