Lebanon, Israel to meet again Thursday for direct talks, US says

The United States will host a second round of talks between Lebanon and Israel on Thursday, the State Department has confirmed, as the two countries push on with direct negotiations amid regional tensions.

The talks, which will take place at the State Department, will be the first since a fragile ceasefire came into effect between Hezbollah and Israel last week.

“The United States welcomes the productive engagement that began on April 14,” a State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera. “We will continue to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between the two governments.”

Lebanese and Israeli officials met last week for the first time in decades, sparking anger from Hezbollah and its allies.

But after the ceasefire came into effect, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reasserted on Friday that Beirut will continue on the path of negotiations with Israel.

“These negotiations are not a weakness. They are not a retreat. They are not a concession,” Aoun said in a televised address.

“They are a decision stemming from the strength in our belief in our rights and care for our people, and our responsibility to protect our country by all means possible.”

Hezbollah has described the talks as part of a series of “losing concessions” that the Lebanese government is making to Israel.

“We reject the negotiations with the occupying Israeli entity. These negotiations are futile. These negotiations require a Lebanese consensus on changing direction,” Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said last week.

“No one has a right to take Lebanon towards that approach without internal consensus among its components, which has not happened.”

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to blow up neighbourhoods in border villages in south Lebanon to create an annihilated area it is calling a “forward defence” line.

Israeli officials have openly said they aim to replicate the destruction of entire towns in Gaza in southern Lebanon.

Aoun has vowed that his government will work towards full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon without sacrificing any part of the country’s territory.

The Lebanese government has pushed to separate Lebanon from the broader negotiations between the US and Israel, arguing that only Beirut can negotiate for itself.

However, Iran has stressed that Lebanon must be included in the broader truce.