Lebanon and Israel will hold a second round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday, April 24, Ada Derana reported on April 20.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, and Lebanon’s Ambassador to the United States, Nada Maouad, will participate, with the Lebanese delegation led by Ambassador Simon Karam. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun separately received US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa for pre-talks consultations.
The meeting follows the first direct Lebanon-Israel talks in more than 30 years, held in Washington in mid-April with the involvement of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the subsequent 10-day ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump. That a second round is going ahead at all signals that the fragile framework is holding and that diplomatic momentum — however narrow — continues.
The human cost of the war remains the backdrop to the negotiations. According to figures cited by Ada Derana, more than 2,300 people have been killed, 7,500 wounded and over one million displaced in Lebanon since heavy fighting resumed on March 2. Earlier rounds of mediation stumbled on questions over the sequencing of withdrawals, the southern Lebanon border zone and the handling of Hezbollah’s armed presence.
Thursday’s meeting will also take place against the hardening US posture on the parallel Iran track, after Trump said on April 20 that the Iran ceasefire will expire Wednesday evening and a further extension is “highly unlikely” — a timeline that will weigh on how much latitude either side has to extract concessions in Washington.
