Lebanon and Israel hold first direct talks in decades as fighting continues

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Lebanese and Israeli envoys are holding their first direct talks in decades in Washington on Tuesday, as Israel presses ahead with its war against the Shia militant group Hizbollah and wreaks havoc in Lebanon.

The historic talks are part of a broader diplomatic push to end the conflict in the Middle East, which has been convulsed by widespread fighting since the US and its ally Israel attacked Iran in February. 

The US, Israel and Iran agreed to a 14-day ceasefire last week, but have so far failed to agree on a more lasting peace, with a first round of talks in Pakistan between the US and Iran ending without a breakthrough.

The fighting in Lebanon has emerged as a key sticking point, with Iran and Pakistan insisting that Lebanon was part of the broader ceasefire, but the US and Israel insisting it was not. Hizbollah is an important regional ally of Iran.

No major breakthrough is expected from the Washington talks, which are the first bilateral discussions since 1993, with the two sides setting out sharply differing views of what is on the agenda.

Beirut has cast Tuesday’s talks as a “preparatory meeting” to lay the groundwork for future negotiations between the two states, which have never had diplomatic relations.

Nada Hamadeh Moawad, Lebanon’s ambassador to Washington, who is attending the meeting, is only authorised to discuss a ceasefire, a Lebanese official said. 

But Israeli officials have insisted that the talks will not discuss a ceasefire, with foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar telling reporters on Tuesday that the focus of the negotiations would be on disarming Hizbollah.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio as well as Washington’s envoy to Lebanon, Michael Issa, are attending the meeting alongside Moawad and Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter.

Rubio described the talks as they began as a “historic opportunity” to bring Hizbollah’s influence in the region to an end.

He also acknowledged the challenges involved in disarming the militant group. “All of the complexities of this matter are not going to be resolved in the next six hours,” he said.

A US State Department official said the conversation was expected to “scope an ongoing dialogue” between the two nations about the security of Israel’s northern border as well as the Lebanese government’s “determination to reclaim full sovereignty over its territory and political life”.

“Israel is at war with Hizbollah, not Lebanon, so there is no reason the two neighbours should not be talking,” the official said.

Israel has not bombed Beirut since launching a ferocious assault across Lebanon last Wednesday, with US President Donald Trump saying that Israel would “low key” its offensive. But it has continued to bombard southern Lebanon. 

Israeli forces are also pushing deeper into Lebanese territory, effectively creating a buffer zone stretching several kilometres north of the border. On Monday, an Israeli military official said troops had surrounded the town of Bint Jbeil and were poised to establish “operational control” there in “days”.

At least 2,089 people have been killed in Lebanon since the outbreak of fighting on March 2, including 252 women, 166 children and 88 medical personnel, according to the country’s health ministry. More than 1mn people have also been displaced by the fighting, in a spiralling humanitarian crisis the fragile country can little afford.

Hizbollah dragged the country back into war by launching projectiles at Israel in solidarity with Tehran last month, following the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran.

Lebanon’s government, which has been working to disarm Hizbollah over the past year, soon called for direct talks, in a bid to stop Israel’s assault from escalating, despite vehement objections from Hizbollah, for years Lebanon’s most potent military and political power. 

Direct talks have proved divisive in Lebanon: supporters of the government believe they are overdue, and would undermine Iran’s outsized role in Lebanon. Critics, namely Hizbollah, believe Lebanon should only negotiate its way out of the war via Iran — Hizbollah’s patron.

Anti-government protests broke out over the weekend in Beirut, while Hizbollah leader Naim Qassem on Monday called on the government to cancel the meeting in the US. 

Additional reporting by Steff Chávez in Washington