Leiter added that now, Israel and Saudi Arabia are still on the path to normalization, although there are still complications to normalization due to the Israel-Hamas War.

Regarding Lebanon’s possibility of normalizing relations, the ambassador said, “Lebanon has the opportunity to ‘emerge from its failed state status and reassert itself as a civil society.” Regarding Syria, Leiter said that the US should have been more hesitant in removing sanctions from the country, stating that the US should wait to see what actions Syria takes, mentioning the importance of protecting minorities such as the Druze and Alawites in the country.

Performance-based agreements with Syria, Lebanon

“There’s not a long history of jihadis becoming Jeffersonians,” he said. “We also can’t allow jihadis to be on our border; we learned that from October 7. We’d like to see [the new leader of Syria Ahmed]al-Sharaa move in a direction where he’s disbanding the jihadi groups, outlawing terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, and protecting minorities, adding that the removal of sanctions must be “performance-based.”

Leiter also describes Israel’s ceasefire with Lebanon as “performance-based.”

“To the degree that Lebanon disarms Hezbollah, to that degree, we’re moving towards accommodation and peace,” he added. “We removed our troops. We have five installations on the border; we’ll remove them too.”

Leiter later spoke about Qatar, saying that he is “more uncomfortable with them than anyone else.”

“It’s unfortunate to see journalists in certain areas of public discussion here supporting Qatar and saying that they’re actually allies of the West, and they’re not. They have an agenda, and it’s not a pro-Western agenda.”