Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered direct negotiations with Lebanon to begin as soon as possible. His announcement came a day after an Israeli attack on Lebanon killed hundreds of people.
“The negotiations will focus on disarming Hizbullah and establishing peace relations between Israel and Lebanon. Israel appreciates the call today by the Lebanese prime minister [Nawaf Salam] to deploy forces in Beirut,” he said.
Netanyahu’s announcement came as Israel’s ongoing strikes against the powerful Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon threatened to derail the talks on a permanent ceasefire between US and Iran, due to get under way this weekend in Islamabad.
Before the announcement, US president Donald Trump called Netanyahu and asked him to scale back Israeli attacks. A senior US administration official, cited by NBC, said Israel had agreed “to be a helpful partner”.
READ MORE
A senior Lebanese official told Reuters that Beirut is pushing for a temporary ceasefire to allow direct negotiations with Israel. The official said the talks would follow a separate track but would use a model similar to the recent US-Iran truce brokered by Pakistan.
Late on Thursday night, Trump said that Iran was doing a “very poor job” of allowing oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz.
“That is not the agreement we have!,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
“No date or location has been set yet for the truce talks,” the official added, stressing that Lebanon needs the United States as a guarantor for any agreement with Israel.
A massive wave of Israeli strikes hit Lebanon on Wednesday. Israel said they were aimed at Hizbullah targets. Dozens of sites were hit in a 10-minute period, in the biggest attack since the start of the war.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, 303 people died in the attacks and more than 1,100 people were wounded. According to Lebanon’s civil defence, 254 people were killed and 1,165 wounded.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz claimed that more than 200 Hizbullah operatives were killed in the strikes and that the militant group is “pleading for a ceasefire”.
Lebanese officials declared a day of mourning after the attacks on heavily populated areas, which they described as a “massacre”.
Lebanon’s cabinet on Thursday ordered security forces to restrict all weapons in Beirut to state institutions, as the government faced mounting pressure to curb Hizbullah’s activities. Prime minister Nawaf Salam instructed the army to immediately enforce state authority in the capital.
The US and Israel had insisted that the two-week truce in the Middle East war, announced late on Tuesday, did not include Lebanon, while Iran and Pakistan, the chief mediator, said it was part of the deal.
[ Analysis: France is talking to the Iranians, and it’s paying offOpens in new window ]
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the Fars news agency that the US must stop Israeli strikes on Lebanon, saying Tehran was on the verge of responding to the ceasefire violation before Pakistan intervened. He added that any regional peace must include Lebanon, calling the coming hours “critical”.
Senior Israeli officials believe that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran is “fragile” and could collapse within days, given the wide gaps each side presented ahead of the weekend talks. At the same time, the officials believe Iran is interested in advancing negotiations and reaching a deal.
The 15-point peace plan drawn up by the US and Iran’s counter proposals, contained in a 10-point position paper, appear to diametrically opposed on all the key issues.
The head of Iran’s nuclear agency on Thursday ruled out any restrictions on uranium enrichment, a key demand of the United States, adding to concerns that the ceasefire may not result in a comprehensive peace deal.
Throughout the war, the US and Israel insisted that their top priority was to end Iran’s ability to obtain a nuclear bomb. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth warned that Iran must either hand over its enriched uranium or the US will take it.
A senior Iranian official told Tass Russian state news agency that under the ceasefire agreement, Iran will allow no more than 15 vessels a day to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, more than 130 vessels were accommodated each day, accommodating the transport of about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. – Additional reporting: Reuters
