{"id":166686,"date":"2025-12-03T22:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T22:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/166686\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T22:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T22:51:08","slug":"lebanon-and-israel-hold-first-direct-talks-in-40-years-as-war-fears-rise-israel-attacks-lebanon-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/166686\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon and Israel hold first direct talks in 40 years as war fears rise | Israel attacks Lebanon News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Civilian representatives from Lebanon<\/a> and Israel joined a session of the US-chaired ceasefire monitoring committee in Naqoura, marking the first direct talks between the two countries in more than four decades.<\/p>\n

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday that Beirut is prepared to engage in negotiations extending beyond security matters, but underlined these are not peace talks and \u201cnormalisation is tied to a peace process\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Salam said these negotiations are aimed solely at \u201cthe cessation of hostilities\u201d, the \u201crelease of Lebanese hostages\u201d, and \u201cthe complete Israeli withdrawal\u201d from Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n

Salam said Lebanon remained committed to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative \u2013 which offers a full normalisation of relations with Israel in return for its complete withdrawal from territory it occupied in 1967 \u2013 and has no intention of concluding a separate peace deal with Israel.<\/p>\n

The participation of civilian envoys could help \u201cdefuse tensions\u201d, he said, noting deadly Israeli air strikes<\/a> recently are a clear sign of rising escalation.<\/p>\n

The committee convened for about three hours along the Blue Line \u2013 the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.<\/p>\n

A statement issued afterwards welcomed the addition of civilian envoys as an \u201cimportant step\u201d toward anchoring the process in \u201clasting civilian as well as military dialogue\u201d, and said the committee hoped to \u201cnurture peace\u201d along the long-volatile border.<\/p>\n

\u2018Renewed escalation\u2019<\/p>\n

The United States has for months urged both sides to broaden the scope of the committee beyond just overseeing the 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The latest meeting comes during mounting fears of renewed escalation after Israeli air strikes hit Lebanon\u2019s capital last month.<\/p>\n

Israel has kept up regular air strikes in Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and facilities, and kept troops in five areas in the south despite the ceasefire\u2019s stipulation that it pull out entirely.<\/p>\n

Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian, in an online briefing to reporters, said Wednesday\u2019s meeting was \u201ca historic development\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis direct meeting between Israel and Lebanon took place as a result of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu\u2019s efforts to change the face of the Middle East. As the prime minister has said, there are unique opportunities to create peace with our neighbours,\u201d Bedrosian said.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE<\/p>\n

Appointment draws scrutiny<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s presidential office announced Simon Karam, a lawyer and former ambassador to Washington in the early 1990s, would represent Beirut in the afternoon session, alongside US envoy Morgan Ortagus.<\/p>\n

His appointment followed consultations between the president, prime minister, and parliament speaker, a statement said.<\/p>\n

The inclusion of Karam prompted criticism from some political actors in Lebanon who view the move as a concession. Salam defended the decision insisting it was politically sound and had national backing.<\/p>\n

He also accused Netanyahu of overstating the significance of the appointment, stressing Beirut is not entering peace negotiations.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Netanyahu framed Karam\u2019s participation as \u201cthe first attempt to establish a foundation for relations and economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon\u201d, after the Lebanese presidency announced the decision.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s office said Israel sent the deputy head of the foreign policy division at its National Security Council to the meeting, describing the session as part of ongoing US-mediated dialogue.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah disarmament<\/p>\n

Salam said Lebanon is open to expanding the committee\u2019s mandate to include direct verification of Israeli claims that Hezbollah is re-arming, as well as monitoring Lebanese army efforts to dismantle the group\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Asked whether that could involve French or US troops on the ground, he replied, \u201cof course\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah is under increasing political and diplomatic pressure to disarm. Israel and the United States are pushing the group to hand over its weapons after it launched attacks on Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel\u2019s genocidal war<\/a> has killed more than 70,000 people.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has rejected calls for disarmament, describing the demands as a joint US-Israeli attempt to weaken Lebanon. Last week, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem suggested the Lebanese state failed to protect the south of the country from Israeli bombardment.<\/p>\n

Qassem says the group has the right to respond to\u00a0Israel\u2019s assassination<\/a> of its top military chief in a strike on Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs last week.\u00a0The Lebanese group has repeatedly rejected any negotiations with Israel as a \u201ctrap\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amid Israeli calls for Hezbollah to disarm, Salam said on Wednesday, \u201cWe have received Israeli messages suggesting a possible escalation, but without specific timelines \u2026 Envoys who visited Beirut believe the situation is dangerous and could worsen\u201d.<\/p>\n

He reiterated that Hezbollah must relinquish its weapons, calling this \u201cone of the essential elements\u201d for its participation in state-building. The group\u2019s arsenal \u201chas not deterred Israel and has not protected Lebanon,\u201d he argued, adding the government has \u201cregained the decision over war and peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lebanon, \u201cwill not allow adventures that drag us into another war. We must learn from the experience of supporting Gaza,\u201d said Salam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Civilian representatives from Lebanon and Israel joined a session of the US-chaired ceasefire monitoring committee in Naqoura, marking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[47380,1153,86,85,46,48084,43,238],"class_list":{"0":"post-166686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-border-disputes","9":"tag-conflict","10":"tag-hezbollah","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-israel-attacks-lebanon","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}