BEIRUT: Lebanon and Israel will open the third round of preliminary negotiations on Thursday in Washington under US sponsorship.
Weeks of political and diplomatic maneuvering by Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, channeled through American interlocutors, have failed to firmly lock in a stable truce.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, first reached during last month’s inaugural preliminary session and later extended by three weeks, had been set by Beirut as a non-negotiable precondition before any substantive talks could begin.
The two-day round will see former ambassador Simon Karam join the Lebanese delegation for the first time. Karam had originally been designated by the presidency to lead Lebanon’s team at previous talks that collapsed after Hezbollah fired six rockets toward Israel on March 2 — an attack that reignited the war on the southern front.
An official Lebanese source told Arab News that the talks would open with one priority: cementing the truce. “Each side has its files and will lay them on the table,” the source said. “We will see where things land.”
The source confirmed that Hezbollah, which flatly rejects direct Lebanon-Israel negotiations, has yet to signal any shift in its position to the Lebanese state.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have pressed further north beyond the Litani River, adding fresh layers of complexity to an already fragile situation.
Lebanon is not arriving empty-handed. The delegation will table an extensive dossier of charts and statistics documenting Israeli violations from the 2024 ceasefire through Hezbollah’s breach of the agreement, the eruption of the second war, and continuing Israeli infractions since the April truce took effect.
The files will detail towns and villages destroyed, burned, and bulldozed, supported by maps and before-and-after photographs. The dossier extends to civilian casualty figures, including journalists and paramedics killed in the line of duty.
Lebanon will also present the full legal texts of agreements and UN resolutions governing Lebanese-Israeli relations since the original armistice.
Karam held preparatory meetings in Washington with Lebanon’s Ambassador to the US Nada Moawad. Also joining the delegation are Consul Wissam Boutros and the military attache in Washington, Brig. Gen. Oliver Hakmeh, a former officer in Lebanon’s Strategic Security Branch. Moawad had represented Lebanon at both earlier preliminary rounds. A team of specialists will monitor proceedings remotely from Beirut.
Israel is expected to field its ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, joined by Strategic Brigade Commander Brig. Gen. Amichai Levin and Deputy National Security Adviser Yossi Draznin.
The US side will be represented by State Department adviser Michael Needham, State Department official Jay Mens, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa.
The official source said: “President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam are counting on Israel’s commitment to the ceasefire. Should this fail amid the Israeli military escalation witnessed in Lebanon on Wednesday, this matter will constitute the only item of the agenda of Thursday’s session, as a prerequisite for beginning negotiations and broadening the scope of discussions.”
Lebanon is limiting the negotiations with the Israeli side to demands concerning the return of prisoners, the return of southerners to their villages and reconstruction, effectively paving the way for discussions on security arrangements between the two sides.
Salam has previously affirmed on several occasions that “the Lebanese Army currently controls 68 villages in southern Lebanon.”
Forty-eight hours before the scheduled negotiation session, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem renewed in a statement the party’s call for the official Lebanese authorities to “withdraw from direct negotiations.” He asserted that “we will not withdraw from the battlefield, and the enemy will be subdued sooner or later. We will not withdraw from the battlefield, and will turn it into hell for Israel; we will respond to the aggression and violations, and we will not return to the situation prior (to) March 2.”
A military source told Arab News: “Last Monday, the Israeli enemy has crossed with armored vehicles north of the Litani River reaching the outskirts of the towns of Zawtar Al-Sharqiya and Deir Seryan, the latter being the closest to the Litani River, effectively crossing the river northward. However, the incursion was short-lived, and the forces withdrew.”
The source stated that Israel now “controls more than 60 southern towns through fire, extending eight, and in some cases 25 km into southern Lebanon, following its evacuation of dozens of border villages of their residents through warnings and direct, extensive destruction. More than 80 southern towns have thus far been evacuated through warnings, extending as far as western Bekaa, noting that the Lebanese Army no longer remains in the villages under Israeli control. We are unaware of the details of what is taking place there.”
Israel intensified its military operations in an unprecedented manner on Wednesday, expanding the scope of airstrikes and warnings to include the Zahrani area. Lebanese authorities described the escalation as political and military pressure ahead of the negotiations in Washington.
On Wednesday morning, within less than four hours, nine people, including two children, were killed in drone strikes targeting cars and motorcycles along the southern highway between Beirut and Sidon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Israeli reconnaissance aircraft constantly flew over Beirut and its southern suburbs on Wednesday, conducting intensive flights that extended as far as the Presidential Palace in Baabda in Mount Lebanon.
The Israeli military announced that “over the past 24 hours, it has targeted more than 40 Hezbollah infrastructure across several areas in southern Lebanon, including weapons depots and buildings used for military purposes.”
The Lebanese government continues to maintain its position that Hezbollah bears responsibility for drawing Lebanon into a war that is not its own.
