The US will host a new series of talks between Lebanon and Israel, a State Department official confirmed to Agence France-Presse on Monday.
“We continue to facilitate talks, directly and in good faith, between the two governments,” said this source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, clarifying that they would be held again at the ambassadorial level, as well as the first round on April 14.
Lebanese President Zozef Aoun said yesterday that direct negotiations with Israel – which Hezbollah – are aimed at ensuring an end to the protracted war and the Israeli occupation of sectors of the south of the country.
While a ceasefire has been in place since Friday between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese national news agency ANI reported that an Israeli airstrike was carried out by an unmanned aerial drone in the south, in Qakayyat al-Jisr, on a bank of the Litani River.
The 10-day ceasefire was announced after a meeting last week between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the US, the first in decades.
The ceasefire in Lebanon had been demanded by Tehran, calling its implementation a prerequisite for resuming talks with Washington in view of ending the war.
Washington, however, insists the two files are not linked.
