Morgan Ortagus, the Trump administration's lead envoy on Israeli-Lebanese relations in 2025, said in an interview published on September 17, 2026, that the drive toward an Israel-Lebanon agreement came from Lebanese citizens rather than from Washington. She said the process is 'halfway down the aisle' and that she does not know when the negotiations will produce a final agreement.
Ortagus says Israel-Lebanon peace push began with Lebanese appeal, not Washington
Morgan Ortagus, the Trump administration's lead envoy on Israeli-Lebanese relations in 2025, said in an interview published on September 17, 2026, that the drive toward an Israel-Lebanon agreement came from Lebanese citizens rather than from Washington. She said the process is 'halfway down the aisle' and that she does not know when the negotiations will produce a final agreement.
Ortagus was a State Department spokesperson during Trump's first term and was part of a small team around then secretary of state Mike Pompeo and special envoy Jared Kushner that worked on what became the Abraham Accords, she said. She also served as a senior policy adviser at the US Mission to the United Nations, and later as Trump's deputy special presidential envoy to the Middle East and his special envoy to Lebanon. She said the Abraham Accords team 'knew that it was something that would last for, we hoped, generations.'
She said the opening followed the dramatic weakening of Hezbollah in September 2024 and Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2024. She drew a parallel to the US killing of Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, during Trump's first term, and said she was disappointed that the Biden administration squandered that opportunity, adding of the Nasrallah killing: 'I thought to myself, we cannot squander this opportunity.' In her account, the aim was not only to weaken Hezbollah militarily but to change Lebanon itself. She said Hezbollah had filled a vacuum left by the state in southern Lebanon, providing health care, infrastructure and schooling, and that the Lebanese government 'completely abdicated its responsibility.'
After Israel released five Lebanese prisoners in March 2025, she said, she revived a military mechanism established following the November 2024 cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah after more than a year of fighting. The meetings were deliberately small, with Israeli and Lebanese officers sitting face-to-face in the same room, and she pushed for them to be held regularly. She described herself jokingly as 'the annoying teacher' forcing everyone to attend class, and recalled: 'I said to both sides, listen, I don't care if I have to kill myself to do this, but I will get on a plane, and every two weeks I will be here, and we're all going to sit here.' An Israeli officer told the Lebanese delegation he lived only 15 minutes from Lebanon, she said. She said the meetings eventually helped lead to civilian negotiations and took away 'the stigma that Israelis and Lebanese could sit in the same room and talk to each other directly,' while adding: 'We didn't make peace.'
She identified money and the possibility of Hezbollah's return as the main obstacles, calling it 'the chicken-and-egg problem': the Lebanese government needs resources to replace Hezbollah, while potential donors need confidence that Hezbollah will not reclaim what is rebuilt. She said Lebanon's economic crisis, Syria's reconstruction needs and Gaza's assistance requirements could make southern Lebanon look like another enormous bill to Gulf donors. She said Lebanon's Shi'ite population may be the most important audience for any future agreement and asked: 'The billion-dollar question is: How do you make the Shi'ites understand that their life will be exponentially better' through normal relations with Israel. She said a generational problem exists on both sides of the border, noting that a 20-year-old Israeli was born around the time of the 2006 Lebanon War.
She described Iran as the 'thousand-pound elephant in the room' in any discussion of Lebanon, saying Hezbollah's money, weapons and equipment come from Tehran and that the IRGC has increasingly taken operational control, and that Hezbollah's eventual demilitarization will have to be connected to wider US strategy toward Iran. She said sanctions alone do not bring down a regime: 'Sanctions are tactics, not a strategy.' She said economic, military and diplomatic steps must work cohesively together, and said the current talks are led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and other officials. She said Israel initially viewed Lebanon tactically because it faced a seven-front war, describing herself as 'almost like a cheerleader with pompoms' in arguing that a historic opportunity existed, and said Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's speech right after his inauguration showed he was 'very open toward making history between Israel and Lebanon.'
She said her approach also has a personal dimension: raised as an Evangelical Christian, she began her journey to Judaism while serving in Iraq and later in Saudi Arabia, and since October 7, 2023, has worn Jewish symbols, including a necklace, a ring and a bracelet, in official meetings in Beirut. She said the reason is her daughter, who recently started kindergarten and who she wants to grow up knowing 'that we are proud to be Jews.' She said Sen. Lindsey Graham was a close friend and mentor, that their final conversation took place hours before his death and covered Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Lebanon, and that he told her, 'You have to carry this forward.'
- The source does not state when Ortagus left her post as special envoy to Lebanon or what her current position is.
- The source does not state the current status, terms or timetable of the talks it attributes to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa.
- The source does not state what the November 2024 cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah provided or whether it remains in effect.
- The source does not state the date of Sen. Lindsey Graham's death or when his final conversation with Ortagus took place.
- The source does not state the date or terms of the release of the five Lebanese prisoners beyond March 2025.
Read the original at The Jerusalem Post