'Peace will never happen': Ortagus warns against waiting for Hezbollah

Morgan Ortagus, former deputy US special presidential envoy to the Middle East, said Wednesday that the Iranian regime remains an obstacle to Middle East stability, while arguing that Israel and Lebanon should pursue peace before Hezbollah is fully disarmed. Ortagus spoke with Israel Hayom US correspondent Or Shaked at the newspaper’s second annual summit in Manhattan. Reflecting on her involvement in the Abraham Accords, Ortagus, who served as State Department spokesperson under Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said the agreements had endured despite October 7 and the wars that followed.

However, she argued that those events underscored the threat posed by Tehran. “There will never be peace or stability in the region as long as the regime in Tehran remains in power," she said. Asked whether Washington’s goal was to replace the Iranian regime or negotiate another nuclear agreement, Ortagus said President Donald Trump’s overriding priority remained preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. “President Trump has made it clear for more than a decade that the absolute objective is to ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon," she stated.

Ortagus pointed to the killing of Qassem Soleimani as an example of Trump’s willingness to act, saying predictions that the operation would trigger a world war had proved wrong. She warned that an agreement which postponed the nuclear threat while leaving Iran able to advance toward a bomb would fail to meet the president’s objective. Regarding a possible change of government in Tehran, Ortagus expressed support for the Iranian people bringing it about, but said Americans currently do not support deploying ground troops.

Turning to Lebanon, she described a political system in which Christians, Sunnis and Shiites share authority, arguing that the country cannot be represented by a single voice. Ortagus compared the challenge posed by Hezbollah to the security threat Mexican drug cartels present to the US, noting that Washington nevertheless maintains close diplomatic ties with Mexico. “If we wait until every Hezbollah weapon has been confiscated and eliminated, peace will never happen," she said.