{"id":602145,"date":"2026-04-23T19:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602145\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:18:08","slug":"lebanon-and-israel-to-resume-talks-to-extend-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602145\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon and Israel to resume talks to extend Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington (AP) \u2014 Lebanon and Israel were set to begin a second session of direct talks at the White House on Thursday to discuss the possibility of extending a truce<\/a> between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group and plans for future negotiations between the two neighbors with a long history of hostile relations.<\/p>\n

A U.S. official said President Donald Trump plans to greet Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad and her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter on their arrival for the meeting, which is the second between the two diplomats, days after they held the first such direct talks<\/a> between the two countries in three decades. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration planning.<\/p>\n

The U.S. will be represented in the talks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, State Department Counsellor Michael Needham, Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, according to the State Department. Huckabee did not participate in the first round.<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that Hamadeh will put forward an extension of the 10-day ceasefire that went into effect last Friday. She also will ask for an end to Israeli home demolitions<\/a> in villages and towns occupied<\/a> by Israel after the latest war broke out on March 2, Aoun said in comments released by his office.<\/p>\n

Preparations are being made for wider-reaching negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. The aim of the future talks is to \u201cfully\u201d stop Israeli attacks, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, deployment of Lebanese troops along the border and beginning the reconstruction process, Aoun said.<\/p>\n

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has called on Lebanon to work with Israel to disarm the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any serious disagreements with Lebanon. There are a few minor border disputes that can be solved,\u201d Saar said during Independence Day remarks to Israel\u2019s ambassadors and diplomatic corps in which he also described the neighboring country as a \u201cfailed state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe obstacle to peace and normalization between the countries is one: Hezbollah,\u201d he said, adding that Lebanon could have \u201ca future of sovereignty, independence and freedom from the Iranian occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest war started after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks on Iran. Israel responded with widespread bombardment of Lebanon and a ground invasion in which it captured dozens of towns and villages along the border.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military currently occupies a buffer zone stretching as much as 10 kilometers (6 miles) into southern Lebanon. Israel says it aims to remove the threat of short-range rockets and anti-tank missiles being fired toward northern Israel.<\/p>\n

Despite Hezbollah\u2019s outright rejection, the talks are a major step for two countries with no diplomatic relations that officially have been at war since Israel\u2019s inception in 1948.<\/p>\n

The Lebanese government hopes the talks will pave the way to a permanent end to the war. While Iran has set ending the wars in Lebanon and the region as a condition for talks with the U.S., Lebanon insists on representing itself.<\/p>\n

Wafiq Safa<\/a>, a high-ranking member of the militant group\u2019s political council, told The Associated Press that the group will not abide by any agreements made during the direct talks, which it opposes.<\/p>\n

Since the ceasefire went into effect last week, there have been multiple violations by both side sides.<\/p>\n

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war killed around 2,300 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of women and children<\/a>, and displaced over 1 million people<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s talks were the first between Israel and Lebanon since 1993. Both countries have relied on indirect communication, often brokered by the U.S. or UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s top political authorities, critical of Hezbollah\u2019s decision to fire rockets toward Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, quickly proposed direct talks in a bid to stop the escalation, hoping Israel would not launch its ground invasion.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Mroue reported from Beirut. Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington (AP) \u2014 Lebanon and Israel were set to begin a second session of direct talks at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[7589,232237,253606,23,1930,12,793,158238,7590,803,1569,31739,31737,643,261939,261940,129,1575,31671,261937,3,111,2229,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,964,965,261938],"class_list":{"0":"post-602145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","10":"tag-abby-sewell","11":"tag-america","12":"tag-diplomacy","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-hezbollah","16":"tag-international-agreements","17":"tag-israel","18":"tag-israel-government","19":"tag-joseph-aoun","20":"tag-lebanon","21":"tag-marco-rubio","22":"tag-michael-needham","23":"tag-michel-issa","24":"tag-middle-east","25":"tag-mideast-wars","26":"tag-mike-huckabee","27":"tag-nada-hamadeh-moawad","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-politics","30":"tag-religion","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-united-states-government","33":"tag-united-states-of-america","34":"tag-unitedstates","35":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","36":"tag-us","37":"tag-usa","38":"tag-war-and-unrest","39":"tag-world-news","40":"tag-yechiel-leiter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}