Israel and Lebanon are holding the first direct talks that could lead to normalization and peace between the two nations, following Israel’s victory over Hezbollah in the recent war and Lebanon’s election of a new president.
The Times of Israel reported Wednesday:
Jerusalem and US President Donald Trump’s administration announced yesterday that Israel, Lebanon, France and the US would create working groups to discuss the Israel-Lebanon border, the presence of IDF troops in southern Lebanon, and Lebanese detainees held by Israel.
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The next meeting will be between the political echelons of Israel and Lebanon, says the [Israeli] official. “This means official Israeli diplomacy within Lebanon.”
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Israel released five Lebanese prisoners yesterday, says the official, so that Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun can show the public that he is able to bring results for the country without military conflict that destroys Lebanon.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terror group, had dominated Lebanese politics for decades until plunging the country into war with Israel as it attacked the Jewish state in solidarity with Hamas terrorists in Gaza on October 8, 2023.
Israel was restrained in its responses at first, but accelerated its counteroffensive until finally, last September, it launched a bold “pager” attack on thousands of Hezbollah officials and killed leader Hassan Nasrallah, among others.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also destroyed Hezbollah’s weapons caches and bases near the border. The ceasefire that Israel and Hezbollah reached in November allowed civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes.
Israel has retained five border outposts within Lebanese territory to monitor compliance with the terms of the deal, which require Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River. It does not trust Lebanese or United Nations forces to do so, mainly because the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) lack the ability and the United Nations forces lack the will.
The end of the war allowed Lebanon, finally, to elect a president after the post had been left vacant for two years.
President Aoun, a Christian who commanded the LAF, is seen as favorable to the U.S. and open to normalization with Israel, even though he has also been critical of Israel’s continued presence in the country.
If Lebanon formally normalizes ties with Israel, it would be the first Arab country to do so since President Trump left office in 2021. The Abraham Accords, the peace framework within the region established by Trump in 2020, did not add a single country during the four years of Joe Biden’s presidency.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
