Second round in Washington set for Thursday as ceasefire strains under continued violence<\/p>\n
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) \u2014 Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said late Monday that planned negotiations with Israel aim to end hostilities and the “occupation” of southern Lebanon, even as Hezbollah and its supporters strongly oppose the talks.<\/p>\n
The Iran-backed group has sharply criticized the Lebanese government\u2019s decision to proceed with negotiations, which are set to enter a second round on Thursday in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
A U.S. State Department official confirmed that the talks will involve the two countries\u2019 ambassadors, following a first round of direct engagement on April 14\u2014the first such talks in decades.<\/p>\n
After the initial meeting, Donald Trump announced a 10-day truce, pausing more than six weeks of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, a major front in the broader Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said it would be in Lebanon\u2019s interest to withdraw from the negotiations, while still supporting the continuation of the ceasefire. He warned that direct bilateral talks risk undermining domestic consensus, suggesting that indirect negotiations\u2014potentially mediated by the United States\u2014would be more appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into direct bilateral negotiations, alone, amid deep Lebanese divisions and internal disagreements, constitutes a threat to internal consensus,\u201d Fadlallah said, adding that regional actors, including Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, could provide a broader diplomatic framework.<\/p>\n
Aoun, however, defended the talks, stating their goal is to \u201cstop hostilities, end the Israeli occupation of southern regions and deploy the Lebanese army to the internationally recognized borders.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed that Lebanon is acting independently, declaring: \u201cWe are no longer a pawn in anyone\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the ceasefire, violence has continued. Lebanon\u2019s National News Agency reported an Israeli drone strike in Qaqaiyat al-Jisr on Monday that wounded six people, according to the health ministry. Artillery shelling was also reported in the border town of Hula.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said it had targeted \u201cterrorists\u201d in the Bint Jbeil and Litani areas who allegedly violated the ceasefire, adding that its air force had \u201celiminated\u201d them.<\/p>\n
The United Nations Security Council on Monday condemned the killing of a French peacekeeper serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), who was killed in an ambush over the weekend. The Council reaffirmed its full support for the mission.<\/p>\n
The killing of the French soldier marks the second French fatality linked to the broader regional conflict in recent weeks, following the death of another serviceman in the Kurdistan Region in a drone attack, which French officials attributed to Iran-backed Iraqi militias amid escalating hostilities linked to the wider U.S.-Israel-Iran war.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, public anger among Hezbollah members and supporters has also surfaced domestically in Lebanon. In Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs, graffiti denouncing Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam appeared, rejecting normalization with Israel.\u00a0Similar criticism has spread across social media, with Hezbollah supporters questioning the legitimacy of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
Fadlallah emphasized that any agreement must reflect the sacrifices made during the conflict. \u201cAny outcome of direct negotiations cannot be imposed on the people who made these sacrifices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Aoun on Monday appointed former ambassador Simon Karam to lead Lebanon\u2019s delegation. Karam previously became the first Lebanese civilian representative in decades to engage directly with Israeli officials as part of a ceasefire monitoring committee in 2024.<\/p>\n
Lebanon, which has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, now faces what Aoun described as a critical choice between continued war and negotiated stability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have chosen negotiations,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I am full of hope that we will be able to save Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Second round in Washington set for Thursday as ceasefire strains under continued violence ERBIL (Kurdistan24) \u2014 Lebanon’s President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,95366,191931,43],"class_list":["post-406099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-lebanon-ceasefire","tag-israel-lebanon-negotiations","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406099","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=406099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}