Israeli and Lebanese officials are scheduled to meet next week for a third round of talks, which will have progressed for the first time beyond the ambassadorial level.
The Lebanese delegation for the talks in the U.S. will make five key demands, the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on Friday, quoting unnamed Lebanese officials.
The demands are of a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, border agreements, the release of prisoners held in Israel, the return of displaced residents to their villages, and reconstruction of areas devastated by the war, according to the report. The Israeli delegation will have a military contingent, the London-based newspaper reported.
Last month, the ambassador of Israel to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, met twice, on April 14 and 23, with his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, in Washington, D.C. The first meeting was hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the second one was chaired by President Donald Trump.
Israel holds outposts along the border with Lebanon, which it captured after Hezbollah joined Hamas in firing rockets into Israel in October 2023. In November the following year, Hezbollah accepted the terms of a ceasefire that said it could not operate south of the Litani River. The Lebanese government has agreed to enforce its monopoly on the possession of military means and enforce the ceasefire, but has only partially implemented this in some areas and has not implemented it at all in other areas.
Israel killed hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists in what it called efforts to enforce the ceasefire. Israel had killed thousands of Hezbollah terrorists in strikes between Oct. 8, 2023 and the declaration of that ceasefire. Hezbollah ended the ceasefire on March 2, 2026, when it fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Iran. The regime in that country has insisted that the ceasefire between it and the U.S. and Israel, declared on April 8, extend to its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has rejected this demand. On Wednesday, Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
