WASHINGTON — The United States, Israel and Lebanon have signed a new trilateral framework that American officials say could open a path toward ending the latest war on Israel’s northern border, restoring Lebanese sovereignty and dismantling Hizballah’s military infrastructure.
The agreement, signed June 26, 2026, in Washington, was announced by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called it a major milestone in President Donald Trump’s effort to bring peace and stability to the Middle East.
But the deal is not a final peace treaty. It is an opening framework, and its success will depend on one of the hardest questions in Middle East politics: whether Lebanon’s government and army can disarm Hizballah, the powerful Iran-backed militia that has long operated as a state within a state.
Rubio said the agreement creates a structured process to restore Lebanese sovereignty, disarm Hizballah, dismantle its terrorist infrastructure and allow Israel to return to its borders once the threat to its citizens is removed.
“For Lebanon, this Framework provides a genuine pathway out of a long crisis,” Rubio said. “For Israel, it creates a verifiable path to removing the persistent threat on its northern border.”
The agreement also creates a U.S.-facilitated Military Coordination Group for Lebanon, known as MCG4L, to help Israel and Lebanon implement the framework.
The State Department said the United States will remain heavily involved and is committing immediate resources, including $100 million in humanitarian aid in coordination with the United Nations. Rubio also said the U.S. intends to strengthen the Lebanese Armed Forces, with more than $30 million available under existing authorities and appropriations to support Lebanon’s effort to assert control over its territory.
The signing comes after months of war between Israel and Hizballah, which erupted after Hizballah attacks on Israel triggered Israeli air and ground operations in Lebanon. The conflict has killed thousands in Lebanon, displaced large numbers of civilians and kept northern Israel under threat from rockets, drones and cross-border attacks.
Israel and Lebanon do not have normal diplomatic relations, and Hizballah was not part of the Washington agreement. That makes implementation uncertain and potentially dangerous.
Rubio acknowledged the agreement is only a beginning.
“Today is the first step,” Rubio said during the signing ceremony. “This first step sometimes is the hardest one, but it’s an important one and the one we’ve taken together.”
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said the framework points toward a future in which Lebanon and Israel are no longer defined by war.
“In this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out, Hizballah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in,” Leiter said.
Leiter said Israel wants a future in which people could travel between Tel Aviv and Beirut, but he said that depends on Hizballah being dismantled and the Lebanese army taking control.
Lebanese Ambassador to the United States Nada Hamadeh Moawad described the agreement as an initial step toward restoring Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, ending hostilities and allowing Lebanese citizens to return to their land.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the framework a major achievement for Israel, saying it sends a message that Iran and Hizballah have no future foothold in Lebanon.
But Netanyahu also made clear that Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon will depend on security conditions. Israeli officials have said Israel will maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon and coordinate any withdrawal as the Lebanese army moves to disarm Hizballah and establish control.
Under the framework, Israel is expected to withdraw from two “pilot zones” where the Lebanese army would begin taking control and implementing plans to disarm Hizballah. One area is reportedly south of the Litani River, while another is north of the Litani in a broader security area.
The Litani River has long been central to international efforts to limit Hizballah’s presence near Israel’s border. Past U.N. resolutions have called for southern Lebanon to be free of armed groups other than the Lebanese state and U.N. peacekeepers, but Hizballah has repeatedly rebuilt and expanded its military presence.
That history is why the new agreement faces deep skepticism.
Hizballah officials have rejected direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel and signaled they will not surrender their weapons. One Hizballah lawmaker warned that Lebanese authorities could not enforce the agreement without risking civil war.
Israeli opposition figures also criticized the deal as too weak. Yair Golan, leader of Israel’s Democrats party, argued that a terrorist organization will not disarm simply because an agreement says so.
The U.S. and Israel view Hizballah as a terrorist organization and Iran’s most dangerous regional proxy. Rubio accused Hizballah of dragging Lebanon into repeated wars, building a vast military network inside the country, launching rockets and drones at Israeli cities, destabilizing Syria, threatening Americans and supporting criminal networks tied to drug trafficking.
For Lebanon, the framework offers a possible route out of years of conflict, economic crisis and militia domination. For Israel, it offers a possible way to remove a persistent threat along its northern border. For the Trump administration, it represents another attempt to reorder the Middle East around deals that isolate Iran and its proxies.
The next test will be whether the framework produces real changes on the ground.
That means whether the Lebanese Armed Forces can move into contested areas, whether Hizballah can actually be disarmed, whether Israel begins withdrawals from occupied zones, and whether the United States and regional partners can keep the agreement from collapsing under pressure from Iran-backed forces.
For now, the agreement is being hailed by Washington as a breakthrough. But in a region where past ceasefires and diplomatic deals have repeatedly failed, the hard part begins after the signatures.