US confirms it will host another round of Israel-Lebanon talks next week

The US State Department confirms that it will host the third round of talks between representatives from Israel and Lebanon on May 14 and 15.

The previous two meetings in Washington were at the ambassador level, as Beirut has bucked US pressure to have Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Aoun has said such high-level engagement wouldn’t be appropriate before the sides reach a security agreement and before Israel halts its strikes in Lebanon.

The sides have been discussing a framework for an eventual peace deal that would see Israel withdraw from Lebanon, an empowered Lebanon disarm Hezbollah as well as the normalization of diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Beirut.

The previous meeting on April 23 saw the US announce a three-week extension of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

That truce has not been felt in southern Lebanon, where Israel has continued to target Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure, and the Iran-backed terror group launches attacks on both northern Israel and Israeli troops that have established a six-mile buffer zone beyond the border, which Jerusalem says is to protect northern communities from enemy fire.

While the US has okayed Israeli strikes in Lebanon against targets that Jerusalem deems a threat, it has drawn a line on strikes in Beirut, which until Wednesday had gone untouched since early April. Israel said the strike targeted a Hezbollah operative responsible for planning attacks on Israeli forces.