US President Donald Trump said he will invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House for what he described as “the first meaningful talks between Israel and Lebanon since 1983.”
The announcement came moments after Trump unveiled a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday. Posting on social media, Trump wrote: “Both sides want to see PEACE, and I believe that will happen, quickly!”
The White House summit offer marks a sharp escalation in US ceasefire diplomacy — moving from a remotely announced truce to direct presidential summitry between the warring sides’ political leaders. The reference to 1983 invokes the last serious formal dialogue between Israel and Lebanon, when the short-lived May 17 Agreement collapsed within a year.
The invitation will test whether Beirut can politically accept direct talks with Israel while Hezbollah remains a dominant domestic force. No date has been set for the Washington meeting, and neither Netanyahu’s office nor Aoun’s presidential palace had publicly responded at the time of the announcement.
Trump’s move follows a week of US-brokered diplomacy after Israeli strikes killed over 300 people in Lebanon and severed a key southern bridge earlier the same day. The ceasefire agreement and the White House invitation together form the Trump administration’s most ambitious Middle East peace initiative since the Iran war began.
For Sri Lanka, a sustained Israel-Lebanon de-escalation reduces the risk of further oil and shipping shocks that have pressured the rupee, fuel supply and tourism since February.
Source: Ada Derana, citing Times of Israel.
