Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Leiter, said Monday, June 16, that Israel has no intention of pulling its forces out of South Lebanon — a statement that cuts directly across the ceasefire framework the Trump administration has been promoting in the region.
Leiter made the remarks in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, who also pressed the ambassador on the peace deal the Trump administration says it has reached with Iran.
The South Lebanon question
Leiter was unambiguous. Israel is “not going to withdraw from South Lebanon,” he told Inskeep — leaving unclear how that position squares with any broader U.S.-brokered arrangement that might require Israeli troop movements as part of its terms.
The Trump administration has said it struck a deal with Iran aimed at ending the wider conflict. Leiter’s comments don’t confirm or reject that framing outright, but his insistence on holding South Lebanon complicates any clean diplomatic picture the White House might want to present.
Leiter didn’t spell out under what conditions, if any, Israel would reconsider its position on South Lebanon. Whether the U.S.-Iran deal addresses Israeli troop presence there wasn’t made clear in the interview.
Originally reported by NPR. Read the original report.
