Lebanon will demand Israel cease fire at face-to-face talks that began in Washington yesterday, a senior Lebanese official said, as Iran-backed Hizbollah and Israel continued to trade blows despite a US-backed truce declared last month.
A State Department official confirmed that a meeting of Lebanese and Israeli envoys, along with US officials, had started at about 9am EDT (1300 GMT).
The talks, which are expected to continue today, are the sides’ third meeting since hostilities reignited between Hizbollah and Israel on March 2.
Beirut is attending despite strong objections from Shi’ite Muslim Hizbollah.
An Israeli government spokesperson said the talks were taking place with the goal of disarming Hizbollah and reaching a peace agreement.
Fought in parallel to the US-Iran conflict, the Hizbollah-Israel war has rumbled on since US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire on April 16 – though hostilities have largely been contained to southern Lebanon since then.
The ceasefire is due to expire on Sunday.
With Lebanon’s health ministry reporting 22 people killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, including eight children, the senior Lebanese official said the Lebanese delegation would seek “a ceasefire that Israel implements”. The Israeli military said an explosive drone launched by Hizbollah fell within Israeli territory near the border and injured several Israeli civilians.
Israel has kept troops in a self-declared security zone in south Lebanon, saying this aims to shield northern Israel from attack by Hizbollah, which fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel during the war.
The Israeli military said it carried out a new wave of attacks on Hizbollah sites in southern Lebanon yesterday.
Hizbollah said it carried out 17 attacks on Israeli troops in the south on Wednesday.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s decision to pursue the talks reflects deep divisions in Lebanon over Hizbollah, founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982.
The Beirut government has sought its disarmament since last year.
When the April 16 ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hizbollah’s disarmament would be a fundamental demand in peace talks with Lebanon.
The Washington meetings mark the highest-level contact between Lebanon and Israel in decades.
Both Lebanon and Israel are broadening their delegations for this round, after the sides were represented by their ambassadors to Washington in the previous two meetings.
Lebanese Presidential Special Envoy Simon Karam and Israel’s Deputy National Security Adviser Yossi Draznin will participate in the talks, as well as senior Israeli military representatives, a State Department official said.
The US-led mediation between Lebanon and Israel has emerged in parallel to diplomacy aimed at ending the US-Iran conflict.
Iran has said that ending the war in Lebanon, triggered by Hizbollah when it opened fire in support of Tehran on March 2, is one of its demands for a deal over the wider conflict.
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