President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will take effect later Thursday after representatives from both nations met in Washington.
Trump said he had “excellent conversations” with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They agreed to commence the temporary ceasefire at 5 p.m. Thursday.
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“On Tuesday, the two Countries met for the first time in 34 years here in Washington, D.C., with our Great Secretary of State, Marco Rubio,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I have directed Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, together with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Razin’ Caine, to work with Israel and Lebanon to achieve a Lasting PEACE.”
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The Israeli embassy declined to confirm the agreement to the Washington Examiner, and the Lebanese embassy did not return a request for comment.
Trump said in his ceasefire announcement that he tasked Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to work with both sides to reach a long-term deal.
“It has been my Honor to solve 9 Wars across the World, and this will be my 10th, so let’s, GET IT DONE,” Trump said.
He also said he will invite Netanyahu and Aoun to have direct talks at the White House.
The agreement does not appear to include Hezbollah, the terrorist group that Israel continued targeting in Lebanon even after the two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran took effect last week.
Hezbollah is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization based in Lebanon, though it also has a party with a parliamentary bloc in the government, making it very entrenched within the fabric of the country. Israel and Hezbollah have fought several wars, including one going on now, in part because Lebanon has been unable to achieve the objectives of the agreements that ended their last two wars in 2006 and 2024.
The announcement follows a historic meeting at the State Department on Tuesday, the first time since 1993 in which Israeli and Lebanese leaders held direct talks.
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Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad led their respective delegations, while Rubio, counselor Michael Needham, and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa were also present.
Rubio, in his opening remarks before the private meeting, called the moment a “historic opportunity” in which they are seeking to bring “a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah’s influence in this part of the world and the – not just the damage that it’s inflicted on Israel, the damage that it’s inflicted on the Lebanese people.”
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
