A second round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon will take place on Thursday, an Israeli and a US official tell The Times of Israel on Monday. The meeting, the official said, will take place at the State Department in Washington, and will include staffers from the Israeli, Lebanese, and US sides. Israel will be represented by its envoy to the US, and Lebanon by its former ambassador to Washington, Simon Karam.
“The United States welcomes the productive engagement that began on April 14,” a State Department official told The Times of Israel, confirming that the US will host a second round of talks on Thursday. “We will continue to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between the two governments.”Last Tuesday, Leiter and Lebanon’s current envoy in the US, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, met for roughly two hours, marking the highest-level direct talks to date between Israeli and Lebanese officials. The talks were mediated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other American diplomats.
Thursday’s talks will take place days before a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is set to expire. But Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Monday, following a meeting with US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, that the US was making an effort to extend the truce, according to the Asharq al-Awsat outlet. A lawmaker for Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and is sworn to Israel’s destruction, castigated the direct talks and vowed to continue “resistance” against Israeli troops’ presence in the south of the country. He also vowed that his terror group would not lay down its weapons, something both Israel and the Lebanese government have demanded. (Read More)
