During talks between Israel and Lebanon on Tuesday, senior members of the Israeli delegation said that Hezbollah did not stop fighting, despite promising US President Donald Trump to do so on Monday.
Delegations from both Lebanon and Israel met at the US State Department on Tuesday to begin a scheduled two-day resumption of negotiations.
Members of the Israeli delegation also said that Hezbollah publicly rejected the equation of a ceasefire in southern Lebanon in exchange for a ceasefire in northern Israel.
The US is also forming a plan in which US forces will train their Lebanese counterparts to deal with Hezbollah in Beirut, KAN News reported on Tuesday.
“Our logic is to contain the fighting in Lebanon and not make it an issue in negotiations,” a US administration source told KAN.
The negotiations come a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a strike on Beirut at the urging of Trump, with Iranian officials warning that military action taken by Israel against Lebanon would cause a halt in communication between Iran and the US.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that while the US is trying to view the Lebanon-Israeli talks as separate and distinct from Iran, Iran wants to “mix it all together.”
Iran is currently attempting to interfere with the talks between Lebanon and Israel “so that if an arrangement is reached at some point in the future, they can claim credit for having forced it through leverage,” Rubio said.
Rubio also reaffirmed the US’s support for “demilitarizing and defanging Hezbollah, while at the same time strengthening the legitimate government of Lebanon.”
