In a historic meeting hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, government officials from Israel and Lebanon met for direct talks for the first time in 33 years amid the Jewish state’s continued strikes against Hezbollah terrorist targets embedded deep within Lebanon’s southern territory. Experts say the talks could be the first step towards eliminating the Iranian terrorist proxy from the region.

Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter expressed optimism following the talks, which lasted over two hours. “We are on the same side, we and the Lebanese, that the evil of Hezbollah must be eradicated,” he remarked. Rubio concurred, noting that the talks represented progress toward “bringing a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah’s influence in this part of the world.” Lebanese officials voiced similar sentiments, saying they want to force Hezbollah to disarm but would need U.S. aid to do so.

The talks came as Israel’s military continued striking Hezbollah targets within Lebanon, saying that the U.S.’s current ceasefire with Iran that began on April 7 would not affect its military operations across its northern border. The current clash began on March 2 after a Hezbollah attack on Israel, with reports indicating that hundreds of Lebanese civilians have been killed by Israeli strikes, while at least 12 Israeli soldiers and two civilians have been killed.

The U.S. sees the diplomatic effort between the two nations as a major step toward erasing Iran’s violent influence over the Middle East through its terrorist proxy groups that it has historically supported with money and arms. U.S. officials have stated that Iran has funneled up to $1 billion annually to Hezbollah, who holds outsized influence over the Lebanese government as a political party and acts as a “state within a state.”

Hezbollah is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American servicemembers and other civilians, including the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 which killed 63 people including 17 Americans, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut the same year that killed 241 Marines and 58 French soldiers, the bombing of a restaurant in Spain in 1984 that killed 18 U.S. servicemembers, the bombing of a U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut the same year which killed 11, the bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina in 1994 that killed 85, the bombing of a housing complex in Saudi Arabia in 1996 that killed 19 U.S. servicemembers, along with numerous other hijackings, kidnappings, and murders.

Middle East experts like Gregg Roman, who serves as executive director of the Middle East Forum, say that the Israel-Lebanon summit is coming at the perfect time as a result of Hezbollah being severely weakened by Israeli strikes and by the U.S.’s decimation of Iran’s military and government.

“I think Lebanon right now is at the table because Hezbollah is on the ropes,” he emphasized during “Washington with Tony Perkins” Tuesday. “Diplomacy follows victory. It’s not the other way around. Now, on the other side, Hezbollah is calling these talks futile. But that’s how you know that they’re working. For the first time in 33 years, Lebanon is now talking to Israel instead of letting Iran talk for them. And frankly, if we go back two years to the 2024 ceasefire, it failed because Israel outsourced disarmament to people who wouldn’t disarm anyone. Israel’s not going to make that mistake twice. And frankly, Rubio is in the room, Hezbollah is not. That tells you who’s shaping the future of Lebanon as a country.”

Roman further highlighted the significance of the talks. “Israel right now is negotiating from a position of strength. They’re preparing for a long-term occupation of southern Lebanon to keep Hezbollah away from the border. But if the Lebanese government signals to Israel that it is willing to do its part to help disarm, perhaps with the international actor that has real teeth or even [has] a tacit recognition of Israel having to disarm Hezbollah themselves. This shows that the talks are not about a ceasefire. They’re not about trying to find a modicum of cooperation with Hezbollah. They are about disarmament. And at the end of the day, this is actually a good thing for Lebanon. … [I]f the Lebanese government wants to be able to get peace with Israel, Hezbollah is the actor that’s in the way that has to be removed.”

Roman went on to detail how the U.S. can go about helping the Lebanese government rid itself of Hezbollah.

“They have to take the rot out of Lebanon’s parliament, where there’s 14 sitting members … from Hezbollah as a political party and provide the political cover and perhaps even the armaments, not just for Lebanon as the army to do so, but also to their internal security services, which have always had a certain level of tension with Hezbollah,” he explained. “Beyond that, they have to condition support to Lebanon and helping rebuild Shia villages to make sure that that money is maybe coming from [frozen] Iranian assets. … [I]f Iran is removed as the benefactor of Hezbollah, other Shia inside of Lebanon itself might shift their allegiance to the government.”