Lebanon was heading into a third round of talks with Israel in Washington, and Beirut was already saying the one thing Washington wanted most would not happen yet. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Al-Monitor reported, will not sit down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while Israeli attacks on Lebanon go on.
Lebanese and Israeli representatives were reportedly due to meet at the State Department the following week, to lay the groundwork for direct negotiations. LBCI reported the session would run two days, either Wednesday and Thursday or Thursday and Friday. There was no official confirmation from the US side.
Lebanon’s delegation will again include Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh, who attended both earlier rounds. New to the table are former Ambassador Simon Karam, deputy chief of mission Wissam Botros and a representative of the Lebanese military.
How the talks got here
Hamadeh and her Israeli counterpart, Yechiel Leiter, first met in Washington on April 16, while Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah were at war. That war began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets toward Israel in support of Iran. President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire during that round. He joined the second round on April 23 and announced a three-week extension, which runs out on May 17. He told reporters he wanted to host both Netanyahu and Aoun during the truce.
Israel’s escalation in Lebanon has killed more than 2,700 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Fire continues in the south despite the ceasefire, and Israeli troops hold what they call a defensive Yellow Line about 10 kilometers (six miles) inside Lebanese territory. Lebanon wants a deal that ends the attacks and pulls Israeli forces out. Israel wants an agreement that permanently disarms Hezbollah.
Washington pushes, Beirut resists
The US Embassy in Beirut said a meeting facilitated by Trump would let Lebanon seek guarantees on “full sovereignty, territorial integrity, secure borders, humanitarian and reconstruction support and the complete restoration of Lebanese state authority over every inch of its territory”. US Ambassador Michel Issa argued that sitting with Netanyahu “would not constitute a defeat or a concession”. Netanyahu, he said, “is not the bogeyman, he is the other party in the negotiations.”
Aoun’s answer: “We must first reach a security agreement and stop the Israeli attacks on us before we raise the issue of a meeting between us.” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called talk of such a meeting “still premature” and said Lebanon seeks peace, not “normalization with Israel”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at the White House, said a peace deal was “eminently achievable”. In his words, “The problem with Israel and Lebanon is not Israel or Lebanon; it’s Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah rejects any negotiations with Israel. Its chief, Naim Qassem, called the talks a “humiliating and unnecessary concession,” and its supporters accuse Aoun’s government of treason. Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally, said there could be no negotiations while the war continued.
Sources
- Lebanon, Israel eye third round of talks, but no Netanyahu-Aoun meeting in sight
- Israel-Lebanon talks move to Washington, Rome delayed
