Israel and Lebanon share goal of dismantling Hezbollah, says Israeli official

Both Jerusalem and Beirut have the objective of disarming Hezbollah, a senior Israeli official tells The Times of Israel, as direct talks between the two enemy states begin in Washington.

“Our objective is the same one that we had last week and the week before, that we have to dismantle Hezbollah,” says the official. “That’s the mutual objective of both the Lebanese government and of Israel. And anybody who wants peace wants to dismantle Hezbollah.”

Turning to Iran, the official is not worried about US President Donald Trump’s insistence on continuing to seek a diplomatic solution to the Iranian threat.

“The president knows that Iran always lies and plays for time,” says the official. “We should not underestimate President Trump’s resolve in making sure that he reaches his objectives of making sure that Iran does not have nuclear capabilities.”

Israel has “degraded the regime considerably,” says the official. “We’ve taken out most of the first-tier leadership, most of the second-tier leadership. And now they have what you call the D-League team. And I don’t think the Iranian people want to replace one ayatollah with another one — Ayatollah Senior being replaced by Ayatollah Junior. But it’s up to them.”

Despite Hamas’s open defiance of Trump’s plan to disarm the Gaza terror group, the official is optimistic on that front as well.

“In terms of destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, as the president said, as the prime minister said, it’s going to happen the easy way or the hard way,” says the official.

“We wake up almost every morning, and hear of a different Hamas terrorist that’s been taken out. We’ve taken out thousands of Hamas terrorists and we’ll continue to do so if need be. If the Board of Peace can disarm them, fantastic. And if not, it will happen the hard way.”