Vance says US made ‘very good progress’ on Israel-Hezbollah ‘deconfliction mechanism’ during Iran talks; Hezbollah will be part of the conversation

US Vice President JD Vance says that “very good progress” was made on a “deconfliction mechanism” between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon during talks with Iran in Burgenstock yesterday.

“We want a regional ceasefire, right? We want Hezbollah to stop firing at our friends in Israel. We want Israelis to be able to live in peace. We also want to make sure that, you know, when things happen, they don’t spiral into a broader escalation,” he says during a press conference in Switzerland.

He says the goal of the mechanism is to allow for direct communication when incidents occur between Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and other regional partners, since “there really hasn’t been a mechanism to have those discussions until basically [yesterday,] when we set that up.”

While Vance claims the concept is new, a deconfliction mechanism was in fact set up during the Biden administration as part of the November 2024 ceasefire it brokered in Lebanon.

That panel included representatives from Israel, the Lebanese government, the US, the UN and France, and remains in place to date, albeit with limited effectiveness.

One apparent difference between the deconfliction mechanism described by Vance and the one that already exists is that the vice president says Hezbollah will be part of the conversation.

“Sometimes a junior guy (in Hezbollah) fires a drone that didn’t have approval from the high command. Of course, Israel has to respond to that, but we could have a more peaceful situation if Israel responds in the context of the conversation that is ongoing between Hezbollah, Lebanon, Israel and other partners in the region,” Vance says.

Vance and US President Donald Trump have criticized Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah attacks on its troops as disproportionate in recent days. Vance now stresses that “Israel and every other nation in the region has the right of self-defense, but we want to make sure that everybody has that right of self-defense in the background where we’re talking about how to de-escalate these conflicts rather than spiraling out of control.”

Asked by a reporter if the US wants Israel to withdraw from its southern Lebanon security zone, Vance doesn’t answer directly but reiterates that deconfliction efforts are ongoing and defends Israel’s reasoning: “We want Israel’s security to be protected, and we also want Lebanon’s sovereignty to be protected. And this is going to be an ongoing conversation.”

“The Israelis have been very clear they do not have territorial intentions on south Lebanon. The reason they feel they have to be there is because they’re worried about Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon firing into Israel,” he says.

He says getting to a place “where Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty is protected” and “Israel’s security is protected” is going to require coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces as well as “the Iranians to rein in Hezbollah.”