President Donald Trump personally joined a second round of ambassador-level negotiations between Israel and Lebanon at the White House on Thursday and announced afterward that the two sides had agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks. The Associated Press and Reuters confirmed the extension. The talks had originally been scheduled as a State Department session between the two countries' ambassadors; Trump was added to the meeting three hours before it was set to begin, according to U.S. officials.
Trump announced the three-week extension after the second round of direct talks, flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, and Lebanese Ambassador to the United States Nada Hamadeh Moawad. Rubio said Trump's personal involvement "made it possible" for the ceasefire to be extended. The first round of talks, held the previous week, was the first high-level contact between the governments of Israel and Lebanon since 1993.
Ahead of the session, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam set out Beirut's negotiating floor in an interview with The Washington Post. Salam told the Post that any deal requires a "full withdrawal" of Israeli forces and that Lebanon is urging Washington to pressure Israel to scale back its demands and end its military invasion. Speaking to the Post during a visit to Paris, where he also held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, Salam rejected any arrangement that leaves Israel controlling a buffer zone in Lebanese territory. Israel says the buffer zone is necessary to keep Hezbollah from launching strikes into northern Israel.
Shortly before talks began, Hezbollah fired several rockets at Israeli villages along the border; the Israel Defense Forces conducted airstrikes targeting the launchers. Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the extended ceasefire is "not 100%," questioning whether the Lebanese government is capable of enforcing the truce in the south, where Hezbollah operates. Trump said he looks forward to hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House "in the near future," and expressed hope that visit could occur within the three-week window.
Sources: POLITICO | The Associated Press | Reuters | The Washington Post | Axios | CNN
Comments (0)