The Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, during an interview with the American conservative group platform PragerU. (Screenshot)
Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, suggested that Syria and Lebanon could join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel before Saudi Arabia, during an interview broadcast by the American conservative platform PragerU.
“There is no reason today why we should not progress towards an agreement with Syria and Lebanon ... We have profoundly changed the paradigm in this region. I am very optimistic about the potential of an Abraham Accord with Syria and Lebanon, and this could even precede Saudi Arabia,” the diplomat, appointed last January, stated on Saturday night.
Leiter added that “Lebanon has the opportunity to emerge from its status as a failed state and reassert itself as a civil society,” with the country having radically changed dynamics since the election of Joseph Aoun to the presidency and the formation of Nawaf Salam’s government earlier this year, particularly on the matter of reforms it must launch to start recovering its economy that has been in crisis since late-2019.
Criticism of lifting sanctions
Concerning Syria, the ambassador criticized the lifting of sanctions by the United States, suggesting that Washington should have been more cautious. He called for waiting to see what actions Damascus would take, arguing the importance of protecting minorities such as the Druze and Alawites. While these minorities were targeted by supporters of the Syrian authorities, Israel is accused by some forces on the ground of using their security as a pretext to occupy, bomb and divide Syria.
According to Ambassador Leiter, Saudi Arabia was considering joining the Abraham Accords “because, in 2019, it was not far from doing so. If President Donald Trump had remained in office in 2020, we would probably already have achieved full normalization with Saudi Arabia.” He said that Israel and Saudi Arabia were still on the path to normalization, although the conflict with Hamas currently complicates this process.
The issue of normalizing diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Israel has repeatedly returned to the public debate and diplomatic exchanges since the cease-fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army came into effect, at the end of November 2024, putting an end to a war that claimed over 4,000 lives in Lebanon, mainly civilians, caused billions of dollars in damage, and weakened Hezbollah,
Washington is urging normalization, but Lebanon recently stated, through Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri, that it remained committed to the Arab position expressed at the Beirut summit in 2002, which was a return to the 1949 armistice agreement. The senior official added that “the option of a peace agreement between Lebanon and Israel is unlikely, at least in the coming years, unless things evolve towards the creation of a Palestinian state and an agreement is reached between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which would change the situation in Lebanon.”
Syrian authorities, stemming from the Islamist coalition that overthrew Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, seem more inclined to take the step. Last Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Syrian counterpart Assaad al-Shaibani to discuss normalizing relations after the lifting of sanctions. He also said that the Syrian leaders want “peace” with Israel.
While Israel already normalized its relations with two Gulf countries — the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — thanks to the Abraham Accords, its discussions with Saudi Arabia were suspended as of Oct. 15, following the Gaza war, and have not been revived.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
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