Overview
- President Isaac Herzog delivered a public address from Israel’s northern border offering an official hand of peace to Lebanon while making that offer conditional on Lebanon resisting Iranian influence and Hezbollah’s armed actions.
- Herzog said he still hopes to travel to Beirut but linked such a visit to Lebanon deciding its future in Beirut rather than in Tehran and to Lebanese leaders and citizens taking a clear stand against Hezbollah.
- He accused Hezbollah of violating the 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution and the 2024 ceasefire agreement and said Israel cannot accept cross-border attacks on its citizens.
- Herzog stated that Israel has the full right to defend itself and that any move toward normalization depends on a clear security arrangement that protects Israeli towns near the border.
- The speech used direct Arabic-language outreach to Lebanese audiences and underscores a diplomatic shift that ties future talks to Lebanon’s internal stance toward Iran and Hezbollah, a long-running regional fault line dating to the 2006 Israel–Lebanon war.