US envoy: Lebanon, a 'failed state,' unlikely to disarm Hezbollah by force

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

62% : Lebanese President Joseph Aoun addresses the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York on September 23, 2025.
56% : "It is clear that Israel has become a dominant ally in this repositioning of the chessboard of what is happening in the Middle East," he said.
54% : "You have Israel, which is willing to do border deals with all of its neighbors, and it owes America a favor," Barrack said.
53% : " He said the model for Lebanon should be the Abraham Accords, the normalization deals signed in 2020 between Israel and several Arab countries, including Bahrain.
50% : "You are having this conversation about the Blue Line, the border between Lebanon and Israel," he said.
50% : " Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visits a polling station where members of Syrian local committees vote as part of the country's selection process to appoint an interim parliament, in Damascus, October 5, 2025 (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) Barrack was more optimistic about the prospects for an agreement between Israel and Syria, which have engaged in successive rounds of dialogue.
49% : But despite these efforts, Israel believes Hezbollah has managed to amass new weapons, raising the possibility of a resumption of conflict.
49% : (Israel Defense Force)
48% : The idea is: what can you do so that Hezbollah doesn't use these rockets and missiles?" Mourners pray near the grave of Hachem Safieddine, the slain leader of Hezbollah, during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of Safieddine's assassination by Israel alongside the group's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and other officials, at the Safieddine shrine in the town of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, near Tire in southern Lebanon, September 27, 2025.
47% : The best path forward for Lebanon, Barrack repeatedly argued, was to begin a dialogue with Israel, in the hope of signing a diplomatic agreement.
46% : Lebanese army soldiers make $275 a month." Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By registering, you agree to the conditions He went on to say that Hezbollah, a terrorist group that effectively controlled southern Lebanon for decades before being decimated in a war with Israel in 2023-2024, still holds between 15,000 and 20,000 rockets and missiles that threaten Israel.
46% : How can we put all of that behind us?' He added: "We're on our fifth round of talks with Israel, border talks, de-escalation.
45% : He also repeatedly urged Lebanon and Syria to reach deals with Israel as part of what he called a greater regional "realignment."
43% : He said the time had come to expand regional normalization with Israel due to various factors, including the ceasefire in Gaza and the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad last year.
43% : "You can't say the word Israel in Lebanon...
43% : " While supporting nonviolent efforts to disarm terrorists, the Hezbollah-allied daily Al Akhbar reported in recent days that Barrack was warning Lebanese officials that this was their "last chance" to reach an agreement with Israel.
43% : "The Al-Sharaa regime comes into place, and in 10 months it is rapidly moving towards something we have never seen, perhaps even towards the path of normalization with Israel," Barrack said.
43% : "So we have countries coming together and saying, 'Great, we've had a problem with Israel since 1928.
42% : The newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said Barrack said: "Either they learn the lesson and decide to enter into direct negotiations with Israel under the auspices of the United States, to set a timetable and a mechanism for disarming Hezbollah, or Lebanon will be left to its fate, and will remain that way for a long time, and no one will care, neither in America nor in the region, and no one will be able to pressure Israel to prevent it from doing whatever it sees fit." to do.
41% : He acknowledged the volatile relationship between Israel and Turkey and argued that each side's fear of the other's perceived expansionism was unfounded. US envoy Tom Barrack: The ceasefire in Gaza would not have happened without Trkiye.
40% : Israel fears Trkiyes' role due to rhetoric between Erdogan and Netanyahu, with each blaming the pic.twitter.com/L79INJo2sD - Clash Report (@clashreport) November 1, 2025 Barrack's statements come amid growing tensions in the border area and beyond.
38% : Furthermore, he added, Israel "owes America a favor" because the United States joined Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in June.
37% : It's illegal to have a conversation with Israel.
36% : We've had real problems with Israel since 1948.
33% : Meanwhile, Lebanon says Israel rejected its proposal to begin negotiations last month on an IDF withdrawal.
28% : The war between Israel and Hezbollah began on October 8, 2023, when the terrorist group began firing missiles at Israel a day after the Hamas-led attack in the south.
26% : But tensions between Israel and Lebanon have increased as Hezbollah appears to be rearming and Israel continues to carry out strikes in southern Lebanon, targeting what it sees as ceasefire violations by the terrorist group.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.