An Israeli official on Monday said that while talks about potential peace deals with both Lebanon and Syria are taking place, Beirut must “finish the issue” of disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group before any normalization can move forward.

Earlier Monday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that Lebanon and Syria are both prospective candidates to join the Abraham Accords alongside Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020. A deal with Sudan was also announced at the time, but is yet to fully materialize.

Both Syria and Lebanon do not recognize Israel and have been technically at war with it since its creation in 1948.

But before peace with Lebanon can move ahead, the Israeli official said, “We need to finish the issue of disarming Hezbollah. It will be very hard. I don’t know if they will succeed.”

Still, the official indicated that the Lebanese Armed Forces have demonstrated they are serious about disarming Hezbollah.

“They definitely have limitations that are both subjective and objective, but we are under the impression that they are trying,” the official said. “At least most of the army is trying. We see more-or-less effective enforcement, but you see that we are striking almost every........

© The Times of Israel