A third round of talks between Israel and Lebanon concluded in Washington on Friday, and the United States and the Jewish state said that discussions will advance on separate political and security tracks, as a three-week ceasefire was extended by another 45 days.
The announcement is in line with comments that Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, made to JNS ahead of this week’s talks.
Tommy Pigott, State Department spokesman, called the latest negotiations, which lasted for eight hours on Thursday and much of Friday, “highly productive.”
The State Department will reconvene the political track of negotiations on June 2 and June 3, Pigott stated.
Separately, “a security track will be launched at the Pentagon on May 29 with military delegations from both countries,” according to Pigott.
“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,” he said.
Leiter stated that this week’s talks were “frank and constructive” and that he is “looking forward to the next steps.”
“There will be ups and downs, but the potential for success is great,” he stated. “What will be paramount throughout negotiations is the security of our citizens and our soldiers.”
Leiter, who is leading the Israeli delegation in the U.S.-brokered talks, told JNS on Wednesday night that the discussions this week would focus on “setting the framework for two teams,” one on peace and one on security, each independent of the other.
The envoy said that the goal was to set up a team “that will deal with achieving peace, a peace treaty, full peace, as if Hezbollah doesn’t exist,” and a team on the security track, which will function “as if the peace talks don’t exist.”
Leiter expressed confidence that reaching a peace treaty with Lebanon while fighting Hezbollah is achievable.
“I think we’re going to accomplish both,” he told JNS. “That’s our position.”
Youssef Raggi, Lebanon’s foreign minister, shared quotes from a newspaper interview that he gave on Wednesday on social media on Friday.
“At this stage, Beirut is not talking about a peace agreement,” he wrote. “The priority is to stop the attacks and destruction, protect civilians and create the conducive conditions for sustainable negotiations.”
