Lebanon and Israel will hold their third round of direct talks in Washington on May 14 and 15, US and Lebanese officials confirmed on Friday, marking the most sustained diplomatic engagement between the two countries since the 2006 war. Lebanese ambassador Simon Karam will lead the Beirut delegation; Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer will lead Israel's.
The previous round, on April 23, was chaired in part by President Donald Trump after he announced a ten-day truce on April 16 between Israel and the Lebanese state. American mediators have organised the negotiations into security and political tracks, intended to address the Israeli army's presence in southern Lebanon, prisoners held by both sides, the fate of displaced Lebanese in the south, and a reconstruction package for towns flattened during the most recent fighting.
A senior Lebanese official said Beirut was not preparing to sign a peace treaty along the lines of the agreements Israel reached with Egypt and Jordan. "We are working towards an arrangement that restores Lebanese rights in exchange for non-aggression. That is the maximum that the political situation allows," the official said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in remarks to the Knesset on Wednesday, set out a tougher position. He said any agreement "must include the dismantling of Hezbollah's weapons" and described the goal as "a real peace agreement that will last for generations". The disarmament demand is rejected by Beirut and by Hezbollah's political bloc inside the Lebanese parliament.
A Lebanese official told the National earlier in the week that Washington was privately pressing Israel to ease its military activity in southern Lebanon ahead of the talks, including by halting reconnaissance flights over Beirut. Israeli aircraft struck the Bekaa Valley on Wednesday, killing what the Israel Defence Forces said were three Hezbollah operatives.
The Washington talks are expected to take place against the backdrop of escalating tensions between the United States and Iran following Thursday's naval clash in the Strait of Hormuz, which Lebanese officials privately said added urgency to closing a Lebanon-Israel arrangement before any wider conflagration.