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Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of their ceasefire after another round of talks in Washington, the US State Department said Friday. It comes after two "productive" days of talks, and will be followed by more negotiations June 2-3, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said. A shaky truce between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon had been due to end on Sunday. "We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border," Pigott said on social media.
A third round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon kicked off in Washington Thursday, days before the expiration of a truce that reduced but did not stop the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Lebanese officials are hoping that the two-day negotiations will yield a new ceasefire deal and pave the way for tackling a series of thorny issues, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah. The Trump administration has been pushing for a breakthrough between the two neighbours that have been officially in a state of war since Israel was created in 1948. Hezbollah, however, is not part of those talks and has been vocally opposed to Lebanon engaging in direct negotiations with Israel. Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group have continued to trade near-constant fire across the border despite a US-brokered ceasefire on April 17. Initially a 10-day truce, it was then extended for another three ...
Israeli airstrikes Wednesday struck seven vehicles in Lebanon - three of them on the main highway just south of Beirut - killing 12 people including a woman and her two children, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon, hours after telling residents of six southern villages to evacuate. Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold another round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday as the Trump administration pushes for a breakthrough between the two neighbours that have been in a state of war since Israel was created in 1948. The United Nations has also accused Hezbollah of drone strikes near its peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' message to both sides is that they must observe the ceasefire and stop all attacks, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said. The Health Ministry confirmed the seven airstrikes on vehicles, but didn't provide full detai
Hezbollah has launched a new weapon against northern Israel in the latest round of fighting: small drones controlled with fibre-optic cables the width of dental floss that avoid electronic detection. These drones - used widely in the war in Ukraine - are small, hard to track and potentially lethal. Many drones are susceptible to electronic jamming by air defences. Jamming can cause a drone to crash or return to its point of origin. But fibre-optic drones are not controlled remotely. They have a thin cable that connects an operator directly to the drone, making it impossible to electronically jam. The drones are not infallible because the wind - or other drones - can cause the cables to tangle. But, "if you know what you're doing, it's absolutely deadly", said Robert Tollast, a drone expert and researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, explaining how the drone can fly low and creep up on a target. Experts say militaries must either intercept the drones, which is
US President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. military to "shoot and kill" Iranian small boats choking the Strait of Hormuz. In a social media post Thursday morning, he said the military is intensifying its mine clearing efforts in the critical waterway. The move intensified the U.S.-Iran standoff in the Persian Gulf and raised questions about efforts to end the war. Later Thursday, Trump said Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The meeting Thursday was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries since last week. The initial 10-day ceasefire, which took effect last Friday, had been due to expire Monday. Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it seized another tanker Thursday associated with smuggling Iranian oil, the Majestic X, in the Indian Ocean, deepening confusion over efforts to end the war. The seizure comes after a day after Iran attacked three cargo ships in the Strait of ...
President Donald Trump says Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House on Thursday. Trump says the meeting between Israel's and Lebanon's ambassadors to the United States went "very well." The meeting was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries since last week. The initial 10-day ceasefire, which took effect last Friday, had been due to expire Monday.
Lebanon and Israel were set to begin a second session of direct talks in Washington on Thursday to discuss the possibility of extending a truce between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group and plans for future negotiations between the two neighbours with a long history of hostile relations. The meeting between Lebanese Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad and her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter is the second between the two diplomats, days after they held the first such direct talks between the two countries in three decades. Lebanon President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that contacts are ongoing to extend the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect Friday. Hamadeh will put forward an extension of the ceasefire during the meeting and ask for an end to ongoing Israeli home demolitions in villages and towns occupied by Israel after the latest war broke out on March 2, Aoun said in comments released by his office. Preparations are ongoing for ...
President Joseph Aoun on Friday struck a defiant tone in his first address since a US-brokered ceasefire took hold, saying he wants Lebanon to chart its own course after weeks of war between Israel and Hezbollah. The president said he wants to see Lebanon "flourishing, not committing suicide". He condemned Hezbollah's rocket fire into northern Israel that triggered the latest round of fighting, and criticised Iran's role in arming and backing the group. He framed both as violations of Lebanese sovereignty, and again vowed to disarm non-state groups, including Hezbollah. In a pointed response to Hezbollah's criticism of Lebanon's direct talks with Israel and claims that Beirut lacks leverage, Aoun said the country will make its own decisions and stand by demands shared across Lebanese society, not ones dictated by Iran or its allies. "There will be no concessions to any principle, no infringement of the sovereignty of this country," he said. Aoun also reiterated calls for Israel t
A 10-day ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump and agreed on by Lebanon and Israel started at midnight Thursday local time. The two neighbouring countries held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades on Tuesday in Washington after more than a month of war between Israel and the Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group. The truce, if it holds, could boost attempts to extend the ceasefire between Iran, the United States and Israel after weeks of devastating war that killed thousands of people and upended global markets by disrupting the flow of oil. Hezbollah started firing on Israel right after the start of the Iran war. It kept up attacks focused on northern Israel communities through Thursday night, with at least eight people injured including two seriously, according to Israel's emergency services. Air raid sirens were sounding in a few northern Israeli communities just minutes before the ceasefire was going into effect. Israel's military also said la
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he has agreed to a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon. In a video statement, Netanyahu said he was taking the step in an attempt "to advance" peace efforts with Lebanon. Israel and Lebanon opened negotiations this week in Washington aimed at forging a peace agreement. The Hezbollah militant group, which has been fighting Israel for six weeks, has said it opposes the dialogue. "We have an opportunity to make a historic peace agreement with Lebanon," Netanyahu said. Israel has staged a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, where its forces have been engaged in fierce battles with Hezbollah in the border area. Hezbollah added that "Israeli occupation on our land grants Lebanon and its people the right to resist it, and this matter will be determined based on how developments unfold," a stance that could complicate the ceasefire. Netanyahu said Israeli troops will stay in an expanded security zone in southern Lebanon "much stronger,
The Israeli military on Wednesday killed four Lebanese rescue workers and wounded six others in three consecutive, targeted strikes, paramedic groups said, a stark illustration of the human cost of the Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon a day after it the two countries held historic talks in Washington. The back-to-back Israeli attacks on the southern village of Mayfadoun, near the bigger town of Nabatiyeh, hit the first group of medics responding to a distress call from wounded civilians, a second group trying to assist their wounded colleagues and a third group rushing to aid the first two teams that had been targeted. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the strikes beyond saying it was "looking into" what happened. It has previously accused the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group of using ambulances as cover for militant activities, without offering evidence. The Lebanese Health Ministry condemned the attacks as a "blatan