Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said Monday that Jerusalem views the framework deal it inked last month with Lebanon as superseding the memorandum of understanding that Washington signed with Iran just over a week earlier.

During an onstage interview hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, Leiter also argued that reports of a rift between the US and Israel are overblown, and said the next round of Beirut-Jerusalem talks is slated to begin next week.

“Both Israel and Lebanon clearly see our trilateral agreement superseding the first clause of the MOU. Whether or not the United States does, you’ll have to ask an administration spokesman,” Leiter said.

While the US brokered the talks between Jerusalem and Beirut that led to the framework deal in which the sides agreed to prevent Iran from influencing developments in Lebanon, the MOU that US President Donald Trump went on to sign with Iran appeared to undermine the Israel-Lebanon channel by specifically extending the US-Iran ceasefire to include Lebanon and call for an end to military operations in the country.

Leiter said he recognizes that Iran, along with Pakistani and Qatari mediators, believes the MOU should override the Israel-Lebanon framework deal. However, he argued that the MOU is merely a document aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz after Iran closed the channel in response to US and Israeli strikes. Leiter suggested the MOU “is not a closure of the operation against Iran and its nuclear pursuits.”

The Israeli envoy also argued against the MOU’s envisioned sanctions relief to Iran, insisting that Tehran will use that money “for nefarious purposes.”

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S: Yechiel Leiter “Lebanon is gonna have to get ahold of itself.. make the choice— that it comes down to the side of accommodationism— those who have threatened the notion of Israel’s existence and that Lebanon can be used as a conduit to fulfill… pic.twitter.com/zVN33tSJI8 Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#Article_Incontent1")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId: 'Article_Incontent1', baseDivId: 'Article_Incontent1', } ]); }); } — MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 6, 2026

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S: Yechiel Leiter

“Lebanon is gonna have to get ahold of itself.. make the choice— that it comes down to the side of accommodationism— those who have threatened the notion of Israel’s existence and that Lebanon can be used as a conduit to fulfill… pic.twitter.com/zVN33tSJI8

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 6, 2026

At the same time, the Israeli envoy recognized the limits of Israel’s ability to influence US........

© The Times of Israel