Israel and Lebanon Meet in U.S. for Talks Aimed at Military Coordination, as IDF Pushes Deeper Into Lebanon - Lebanon News
Israeli and Lebanese military officials met on Friday at the Pentagon in Washington, marking the first meeting in a new U.S.-mediated security coordination mechanism between the countries that was announced by Lebanon and the United States earlier this month.
The Israeli delegation was led by Brig. Gen. Arik Ben-Dov, Israel's acting military attaché in Washington. Ben-Dov was joined by several other Israel Defense Forces officers. The Lebanese delegation was likewise headed by the country's military attaché to the United States.
Absent from the meeting were Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the United States, as well as Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad and former Ambassador Simon Karam, who is leading the Lebanese side in talks on a potential peace deal with Israel.
The meeting's agenda was not made public. The Lebanese and Israeli envoys are expected to attend another round of diplomatic talks on Tuesday in Washington.
The talks took place as Israel had escalated its military offensive in Lebanon.
Netanyahu, who on Friday visited troops near the Lebanese border, stressed the IDF's freedom of action in Lebanon. "We are operating in Beirut, in the Bekaa [Valley], across the entire front, and striking Hezbollah hard," the prime minister said. Netanyahu's comments came amid expectations that a U.S.-Iran deal to end the war will include a more stable cease-fire in Lebanon as one of its terms.
Arab media reported ahead of the meeting that the United States pressured Israel to restrain its attacks and that Israel, for its part, requested to postpone the meeting but was refused.
On Wednesday, the IDF declared the entirety of southern Lebanon a combat zone and warned residents to evacuate north of the Zahrani River, roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border.
On Thursday, Israeli strikes hit the coastal southern city of Tyre and the capital Beirut, the second strike in the Lebanese capital since U.S. President Donald Trump declared a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah on April 16.
According to UNICEF, 77 children were killed or wounded in Lebanon in the past week, most of them in airstrikes in the south of the country. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said on Friday that 2,500 Hezbollah militants have been killed since the current round of fighting began in early March.
According to a report in Asharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi daily, the United States pressured Israel to halt its attacks on the Qaraoun Dam in the Bekaa Valley, which supplies about 15 percent of the country's electricity. According to the report, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun asked the U.S. administration to intervene to stop Israel's escalation and stabilize the cease-fire.
A military coordination mechanism led by the United States and France, in cooperation with UNIFIL, had been operating since the November 2024 cease-fire, and until the renewal of clashes.
Last week, an Israeli source told Haaretz that the five-way coordination mechanism established after the signing of the cease-fire agreement in November 2024 did not work optimally because "the Lebanese army did not actually disarm Hezbollah." According to the source, the intention now, through the new coordination mechanism and at President Trump's instruction, is to establish special units within the Lebanese army which will undergo improved screening and training and be tasked with disarming Hezbollah, subject to supervision.
Arab media reports indicated that Lebanon partially or fully rejected this idea, however. Following the third round of talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington this month, a Lebanese official told Al Jazeera that no unit will be established in the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah.
The source also said that Lebanon wants the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization to monitor Israeli cease-fire violations, and is seeking to establish a Lebanese-U.S. committee to oversee the implementation of commitments by the Lebanese army.
Two weeks ago, the Lebanese embassy in Washington announced that the parties had agreed to establish a new security coordination mechanism between the Lebanese army and the IDF, supervised by the United States.
Israel did not commit to whether and how the new coordination mechanism might curb its actions in Lebanon.