Israeli ambassador hails ‘wonderful exchange’ following talks with Lebanon

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Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter hailed a “wonderful exchange” during direct peace talks with Lebanon in Washington on Tuesday, saying the two countries were “on the same side.”

“We enjoyed it together. We had a wonderful exchange of over two hours,” Leiter told reporters following the talks.

“We discovered today that we’re on the same side,” he said, adding: “We are both united in liberating Lebanon from (an) occupation power dominated by Iran called Hezbollah.”

There was no immediate reaction from the Lebanese side.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who mediated the talks, had earlier urged the two countries to seize a “historic opportunity” for peace.

“We understand we’re working against decades of history and the complexities that have led us to this unique moment and the opportunity here,” Rubio said at the State Department as he welcomed the ambassadors of the two countries.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter speaks to reporters outside of the State Department in Washington, 14 April, 2026

“The hope today is that we can outline a framework upon which a current and lasting peace can be developed,” he added.

But the prospect of an easy agreement appear slim, especially as the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which is battling Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, opposed the talks and called for them to be scrapped before they even began.

Hezbollah said it had launched “simultaneous rocket salvos” at 13 northern Israeli towns shortly after the start of the discussions, following an Israeli warning of a rise in attacks during the talks.

Lebanon was pulled into the region-wide Iran war on 2 March after Hezbollah attacked Israel, it said in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Since then Israeli strikes, including an extremely heavy attack on Beirut on 8 April, have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than 1 million, despite international calls for a ceasefire.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter speaks to reporters outside of the State Department in Washington, 14 April, 2026

That same day, both Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump said that a ceasefire between Tehran and Washington did not cover Lebanon, although mediator Pakistan said it did.

“That’s a separate skirmish,” Trump told PBS News Hour last week.

Netanyahu said on Saturday that “we want the dismantling of Hezbollah’s weapons, and we want a real peace agreement that will last for generations.”

On the Lebanese side, President Joseph Aoun said on Monday he hoped the Washington talks will yield “an agreement…on a ceasefire in Lebanon, with the aim of starting direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.”

Hezbollah fighters hold their group’s flag in a southern suburb of Beirut, 4 January, 2022

President Donald Trump’s administration insists on the disarmament of Hezbollah, but also respect for Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, while simultaneously upholding Israel’s rights, positions that appear difficult to reconcile.

A former Israeli defence official told journalists on condition of anonymity Monday that it would take “a lot of imagination and optimism to think” that the issues between Israel and Lebanon can be solved in Washington Tuesday, adding that “expectations are low.”