Ambassador to US: Israel committed to truce with Lebanon as long as Hezbollah doesn’t violate it

By Jacob Magid

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19 June 2026, 12:29 am

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Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter speaks during a meeting between the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on April 23, 2026. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

Israel’s Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter declares that Israel remains committed to its ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, after US President Donald Trump called on the two countries to respect the truce laid out in the memorandum of understanding that Washington inked this week with Tehran.

“Israel remains committed to the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel, Lebanon and the US. If Hezbollah does not violate the agreement, it will be kept,” Leiter tweets.

“Under all circumstances, Israel retains its right to respond to attacks against it and to thwart threats to its territory, citizens and soldiers,” he adds.

Leiter notably specifies that the truce Israel is prepared to adhere to is the ceasefire reached with Lebanon under the auspices of the US, as opposed to the deal that Iran and the US approved in this week’s MOU, which specifies that their agreement covers Lebanon as well.

Israel has insisted that it is not beholden to that agreement, which also states that military operations in Lebanon must cease.

Leiter stops well short of saying that Israel will withdraw from the wide buffer zone it has created in southern Lebanon to fight Hezbollah.

The US has repeatedly criticized Israel for what it says has been its indiscriminate attacks against Hezbollah, while clarifying that Jerusalem has the right to respond to Hezbollah attacks and avoiding publicly calling on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon.

In private, however, the US has called for a withdrawal — and been rebuffed by Israel, as Iran claims the IDF’s continued presence in Lebanon is a violation of the MOU.

A giant poster of Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, under which reads “Coexistence between Muslims and Christians is a valuable treasure that must be preserved,” hangs on a building at the entrance of Beirut’s southern suburbs Hadath neighborhood on April 14, 2026. (Joseph EID / AFP)

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri issues a similar statement to Leiter, expressing the commitment of both Beirut and Hezbollah to a ceasefire with Israel.

Berri’s statement however welcomes the US-Iran MOU as well as Trump’s call to adhere to its terms, saying Lebanon and Hezbollah are recommitting to a ceasefire in order to bolster the negotiations between the US and Iran that are set for this weekend in Switzerland.

Berri is not a Hezbollah lawmaker, but his fellow Shiite Amal movement long been aligned with the terror group and has been used by the Lebanese government as a conduit to it.