Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun today, Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel tells Army Radio.
“The prime minister will speak for the first time with the president of Lebanon after so many years of a total disconnect in the dialogue between the two states, and this move will hopefully, in the end, lead to prosperity,” she says.
The statement by Gamliel, a member of the security cabinet, comes hours after US President Donald Trump posted on social media that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon would speak today. Trump did not specify in his post which leaders were slated to speak.
Following Trump’s post, multiple outlets reported that a Lebanese official said the country did not know of any upcoming contact with Israel.
Earlier this week, Israeli and Lebanese representatives met in Washington, DC, with American backing, the highest-level meeting between the countries to date. The meeting came amid reports that a ceasefire in Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group backed by Iran, could begin soon.
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