In Beirut, Italian FM hails upcoming Israel-Lebanon talks, says Rome ‘ready to host negotiations’

After meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani hails the expected ceasefire talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington tomorrow, saying that Italy is ready to host negotiations between the two countries to resolve the fighting with Hezbollah.

“It is extremely important that the meetings beginning tomorrow in Washington lead to a ceasefire, and Italy is ready to host negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to reach a state of stability,” Tajani says in remarks shared by the Lebanese presidency in an Arabic-language post on X.

Tajani says that he and Aoun agreed “on many points,” adding that he condemns Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel as well as the scale of Israeli retaliatory strikes.

In a phone call with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar ahead of his Beirut visit, Tajani “condemned Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel and [had] called for preserving the safety of the Lebanese civilian population and the Italian military personnel” in the UNIFIL mission, according to a post on his X account.

In his own statement on the call, Sa’ar says that he stressed the scale of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israeli civilians in the north and told Tajani that Israel and Lebanon share an interest in dismantling the Iran-backed terror group.