Israeli, Lebanese delegations to meet in Washington for talks: report
Israel and Lebanon are set to meet in Washington for talks amid the ceasefire, aiming to stabilise the situation and "stop hostilities" in southern Lebanon.
Israeli and Lebanese representatives will hold talks in Washington on Thursday, an Israeli source speaking on the condition of anonymity told Reuters on Monday.
Israel will be represented by its ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, the source said. Lebanon’s delegation will be led by Simon Karam, a former ambassador to the US, according to Lebanese authorities.
It will mark the first talks between the two countries since a 10-day ceasefire took effect on Thursday.
Separately, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that planned talks with Israel aim to end hostilities and the occupation in the south, despite the rejection of negotiations by Hezbollah and its supporters.
"The choice to negotiate aims to stop hostilities, end the Israeli occupation of southern regions and deploy the (Lebanese) army all the way to the internationally recognised southern borders" with Israel, Aoun said in a statement.
‘No longer a pawn’
A 10-day ceasefire, bringing a pause to more than six weeks of Israel's war in Lebanon, came into effect on Friday after being announced by US President Donald Trump.
The truce in Lebanon was also one of Iran's conditions for resuming talks with Washington to extend their separate ceasefire and work out the terms of a lasting peace.
Aoun's moves on Monday came after a forceful address to the nation on Friday night in which he said "we negotiate for ourselves... we are no longer a pawn in anyone's game, nor an arena for anyone's wars, and we never will be again".
Iran-backed Hezbollah is not part of the talks and its supporters strongly oppose Lebanon-Israel negotiations.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2, when Israel and the US started a war against Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, triggering the Tehran-aligned Shia group Hezbollah to fire missiles on Israeli positions.
Since then, Israel has intensified its attacks on Lebanon and expanded its invasion in the country's south, killing more than 2,200 people in Lebanon and displacing over 1 million.