Israeli and Lebanese envoys will sit down for a fresh round of peace talks in Washington next week, even as Israel presses its campaign against the militant group Hezbollah in spite of a ceasefire.
The war in Lebanon broke out in parallel with the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Hezbollah’s backer Iran, with Washington still waiting on Thursday for Tehran to respond to its latest proposed deal to put a long-term stop to the wider Middle East conflict and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.
A U.S. State Department official confirmed on May 7 that the new Israel-Lebanon talks would take place on May 14 and 15.
It will be the third meeting in recent months between the two countries, which have technically been at war for decades and have no diplomatic relations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on May 5 that a peace deal between the two sides was “eminently achievabl,” insisting militant group Hezbollah was the sticking point, rather than any issue between the two governments.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A ceasefire between the two countries and including Hezbollah was extended after the last round of talks in Washington, but Israel has kept up its strikes on the group, which has claimed attacks of its own on Israeli forces occupying parts of Lebanon’s south.
Israeli strikes continued, state media and AFP correspondents reported, a day after one such attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the strike that “no terrorist is immune. Anyone who threatens the State of Israel will die because of his actions.”
Meanwhile, a European Official said on May 8 that more than half of Lebanon’s population depends on humanitarian aid.
“At present, more than three million people, meaning more than half of the population here in Lebanon, depend on humanitarian aid to survive,” EU crisis management chief Hadja Lahbib told reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut.
Lahbib said that since the start of the war on March 2 the 27-member bloc has provided 100 million euros in aid and sent six planes carrying humanitarian aid, with a seventh expected on May 9.
