For Israel, this war is “not over until there is a complete delinkage between Iran and its proxies,” said Yechiel Leiter, the country’s ambassador to the United States, even as he pointed out there is “another week left for potential (peace) talks” between Iran and the United States.
Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” hours after marathon talks between the United States and Iran failed to produce an agreement, Leiter said he didn’t think those talks “were going anywhere but it’s important to give them a chance.”
Still, he doubled down on Israel’s military campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. When Israel’s attacks intensified Wednesday, they threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran. That one day of Israeli strikes killed at least 357 people and wounded at least 1,200, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Afterward, Vice President JD Vance said Israel had agreed to “check themselves a little bit,” though Leiter refused to detail exactly what had been discussed, saying “operational matters aren’t discussed on Sunday morning television.”
“We discussed that we’re going to be in tandem with President (Trump’s) efforts in the Gulf,” he said and insisted that the United States and Israel remained in “lockstep.”
He also said Israel’s strikes Wednesday were “targeted against operation centers of Hezbollah.”
Even as Israel continues striking Lebanon, there have been some talks aiming to halt the fighting there. Leiter said he had a “great conversation” Friday with the Lebanese ambassador to Washington and the US ambassador to Beirut.