Israel's Ambassador Says Lebanon Must Purge Hezbollah Sympathizers From Its Own Army Before IDF Withdraws Further

Israel's ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, says the Lebanese Army has a loyalty problem, and that Beirut has started quietly fixing it.

Speaking on a podcast and in separate interviews with Fox News and CBS's "Face the Nation," Leiter said the Lebanese Armed Forces are more capable of confronting Hezbollah than they often appear, but that willingness inside the ranks has been the real obstacle. He put a number on it.

"You have about 25% to 30% of the army which is Shia, and of the Shia Muslims you have anywhere between 30% and 50% support for Hezbollah," Leiter said, according to Naharnet. He said some units "didn't want to confront Hezbollah, because saw it as a challenge to their own theological affinities."

Leiter claims that's changing. "The solidification of the government now has moved those elements within the army to the side," he said, arguing the shift reflects the weakened state of Iran and Hezbollah since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria.

Leiter's characterization comes without on-record confirmation from the Lebanese Army or Lebanon's government that a formal reassignment of Shiite soldiers has taken place. No independent Lebanese military source is quoted verifying the claim. It should be read as the Israeli government's account of internal Lebanese Army personnel decisions, not as a confirmed fact from Beirut.

The Pilot Zones

The current framework centers on what negotiators are calling "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon, according to the Jerusalem Post and Ynet. The idea: the Lebanese Army deploys into designated areas, actually dismantles Hezbollah's presence there, and if that works, Israel withdraws further. If it doesn't, Israel stays put.

"If Hezbollah is going to stay there, we haven't accomplished anything, and that's why they're called pilot zones," Leiter told CBS's Margaret Brennan, according to the Jerusalem Post. "If it works, then we continue the withdrawal. If it doesn't work, then we stay where we are."

Leiter was blunt about priorities. "The focus of this agreement is the dismantlement of Hezbollah. It's not the withdrawal of Israel," he said, according to Naharnet. "Israel is not going to be in Lebanon the moment Hezbollah is dismantled."

The two governments' priorities are not aligned. According to Ynet, Lebanon's government wants Israel to withdraw faster and wants to demonstrate it controls broader civilian areas. Israel wants deeper, verified Lebanese military action against Hezbollah before it moves. That gap is why the sixth round of talks, held this week in Rome, was described by Ynet as a "bridge-building" session ahead of a larger meeting with expanded teams next month, rather than a session expected to produce a breakthrough.

Notably, the Rome round was held only at the ambassador level, with no military representatives present, according to Ynet. That is a step down in formality from earlier rounds and suggests both sides are managing expectations rather than finalizing terms.

No Fixed Timeline, By Design

Leiter said the agreement deliberately excludes a formal timetable, structuring U.S. support to the Lebanese Army as performance-based instead. "You're already funding, to a large extent, the Lebanese Armed Forces. If you fund them a little bit more, but now make it progress-based, performance-based, not timelines, that's another piece of magic we put into this agreement," he said, according to Naharnet.

He pointed to U.S. CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper's visit to Beirut shortly after the framework was signed, meeting with the Lebanese Army to prepare plans for the pilot zones, as evidence implementation is already moving.

On Fox News's "America's Newsroom," Leiter told co-host Bill Hemmer that the Lebanese Army "needs support from us, from all its friends," and "needs vetting, because some of the units have been infiltrated by Hezbollah operatives." He said the LAF needs better training and more financing, but rejected any half-measures: "This can't be any more of this namby-pamby, well accept them to a certain extent, we've lived with them, so let's continue trying to finesse this. This cannot be finessed with Hezbollah."

A sovereign government being told by a foreign ambassador that a quarter to a third of its own army harbors sympathy for an armed faction faces a serious allegation touching on Lebanese sovereignty and internal cohesion. Lebanon has its own reasons to want Israeli troops out of its territory faster and to resist a framework that lets Israel unilaterally decide when "enough" progress has been made.

Leiter also addressed the broader regional picture, telling CBS that if the U.S. calls on Israel to rejoin "kinetic activity" against Iran, "we're going to be there for the United States." He said Israel has doubts about whether diplomacy alone will fully denuclearize Iran and stop its support for proxies, but expressed hope it could work without further military action.

The next scheduled marker is the expanded session in Rome next month, per Ynet, where negotiators from both governments plan to bring larger teams to review how the pilot zones are actually functioning on the ground. That information has not yet been independently verified beyond the ambassadors' public statements.