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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will oversee peace talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials on Tuesday, marking the two nations’ first direct diplomatic negotiations in 30 years.
Amid a brutal war with Iran in a U.S.-Israeli joint mission, Operation Epic Fury, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF have taken advantage of the chaos and launched massive attacks against Lebanon, purportedly targeting Hezbollah.
There has been considerable confusion over whether Lebanon was – or was not – part of the original ceasefire agreement between Iran and the United States. According to Vice President J.D. Vance, it was not, hence Israel’s high-intensity strikes against urban epicenters and civilian neighborhoods in places like Beirut last week and even as recently as Monday, amidst the standing but tenuous ceasefire. Thousands of people in the region have been killed in these attacks since March, including hundreds of women and children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
“I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t,” the vice president told reporters last week.
He added, “We never made that promise; we never indicated that was gonna be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran and the ceasefire would be focused on America’s allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states.”
According to the Department of State’s official schedule, Secretary Rubio is meeting with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad here in the United States on Tuesday morning.
This also comes just days after VP Vance, along with U.S. Special Envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, failed to secure a peace deal with Iran during weekend negotiations in Islamabad.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, as Hezbollah is deeply embedded in Lebanon, Israel PM Netanyahu has vowed that they will not discuss a ceasefire with the terrorist entity. That being said, the Israel-Lebanon talks are focused on restoring possible bilateral relations and potentially disarming Hezbollah, per the CFR.
As for Hezbollah, they do not seem interested in abiding by any terms agreed upon between Israeli and Lebanese officials. “As for the outcomes of this negotiation between Lebanon and the Israeli enemy, we are not interested in or concerned with them at all,” Hezbollah political councilmember Wafiq Safa told the Associated Press.
