Israel–Lebanon talks in Washington

Israel and Lebanon met face to face in Washington on April 14 for their first major high-level talks since 1993, with the United States trying to turn a fragile regional pause into a wider negotiation. (state.gov) Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened the meeting at the State Department with Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad, Counselor Michael Needham and United States Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa. The State Department said the session was the first major high-level engagement between the two governments since 1993. (state.gov) The meeting lasted more than two hours on Tuesday, April 14, after more than a month of war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Rubio said before the talks that he hoped they could start “a process” toward a permanent end to the conflict in Lebanon. (apnews.com) (state.gov) The talks are happening inside a narrower window opened by a two-week ceasefire announced on April 8 between the United States and Iran after nearly 40 days of hostilities. The United Nations said the pause came amid heavy civilian casualties, major infrastructure damage and more than one million people displaced in Lebanon. (news.un.org) That ceasefire has remained unstable. On April 15, The Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump said United States-Iran talks could resume within two days even as the United States military said its blockade of Iranian ports was in full effect and Tehran threatened retaliation. (apnews.com) The Washington channel is also separate from the battlefield reality in Lebanon, where Israel says it wants Hezbollah pushed back and disarmed, and Lebanon says the state must regain authority in the south. Reuters, cited by multiple outlets, reported that Israel ruled out ceasefire talks at the meeting and pressed Beirut on disarming Hezbollah. (aljazeera.com) (aol.com) Hezbollah rejected the Washington track before the meeting. Al-Monitor reported that the group’s leader, Naim Qassem, said on April 13 that Hezbollah would not discuss disarmament while Israeli attacks continued and Israeli forces remained on Lebanese territory. (al-monitor.com) The pressure to contain the conflict reaches beyond Lebanon’s border. Human Rights Watch said on April 13 that Israeli strikes on four oil depots around Tehran on March 7 could cause long-term environmental and health harm for civilians and said attacks on primarily civilian infrastructure that foreseeably harm civilians are likely war crimes. (hrw.org) For now, the Washington talks produced a channel, not a deal. Rubio said before the meeting that “this is a process, not an event,” and the next test is whether the parties can keep talking while the ceasefire clock keeps running. (state.gov)