Israeli and Lebanese officials meet directly for 2nd time, amid effort to preserve truce

Israel sends National Security Council chief Joseph (Yossi) Draznin to talks with ceasefire monitors in Lebanon, according to reports, as an end-of-year deadline nears for Lebanon’s central government to disarm the Hezbollah terror group.

The meeting, held in southern Lebanon’s Naqoura, is only the second one in decades in which Israeli and Lebanese officials have met directly, after a meeting earlier this month.

Israel sent Draznin’s deputy, Eli Resnick, to the first meeting, which was itself the fourteenth meeting of the so-called “Pentalateral” forum aimed at preserving the ceasefire.

Yesterday, French, Saudi Arabian and American officials met in Paris with the head of the Lebanese army, in talks aimed at finalizing a roadmap to a mechanism for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Israel has been ramping up its military operations in Lebanon in recent weeks, amid reports of a possible widescale Israeli offensive targeting Hezbollah, despite a ceasefire that began in November 2024.

Axios’s Barak Ravid reports, citing a source familiar with the details, that while the meeting today is ostensibly about economic cooperation, it is unofficially aimed at preventing a resumption of the war.

Reuters contributed to this report.