A proposed summit between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Washington has been downgraded just days before a fragile ceasefire in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon expires.
Lebanese and Israeli officials are set to meet at the State Department on Thursday and Friday for talks that the U.S. President Donald Trump last month suggested could be spearheaded by the two leaders, with a ceasefire extension negotiated on April 23 expiring on Sunday. But a Netanyahu-Aoun summit is seemingly further away than ever, and U.S. officials are mum on why they have been unable to get the two leaders together as Trump proposed.
The April 23 talks that led to a ceasefire extension were originally meant to take place at the State Department building in Washington’s Foggy Bottom – like the April 14 talks that led to the initial ceasefire – but were upgraded at the last minute to the White House, with Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio all present. Without Netanyahu or Aoun leading their countries’ delegations, this week’s talks are slated to return to the State Department building.
A White House official this week referred MBN’s questions about Netanyahu and Aoun’s absence to the U.S. State Department, which declined to comment and referred only to an official press release.
A senior State Department official, however, told MBN that the United States continues to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between Israel and Lebanon, with a focus on achieving concrete outcomes that ensure security for both sides and uphold Lebanese sovereignty. The ceasefire extension remains in effect, the official said, adding that Washington is working to build on progress made in previous rounds.
A ceasefire in name only, the United Nations said it last week witnessed the largest single-day exchange of hostilities in southern Lebanon since Israeli forces occupied the southern tip of its northern neighbor, with the majority of munitions fired from the Israeli side.
Last Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that no meeting between Aoun and Netanyahu could take place until Israel at least lays out a timetable for its planned withdrawal from Lebanon.
That might be complicated, though.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said the “security zone” in southern Lebanon, which is aimed to create a buffer between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah forces, could become permanent.
It’s the same sticking point that loomed over the last round of negotiations: Lebanon’s demand for Israeli promises of a withdrawal coming up against Israel’s demands to defang Hezbollah.
Lebanon has for the past year said it is working to disarm Hezbollah through a U.S.-backed plan that aims to establish a state monopoly on arms, although the results have been mixed. As recently as January, Beirut declared it had removed all non-state weaponry from the country’s south. But in the wake of the Iran war, Hezbollah again used Lebanon’s south to fire rockets at Israel.
More than 1,200 civilians have been killed in southern Lebanon since hostilities broke out in the shadows of the Iran war, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes following Israeli evacuation orders that cover nearly 15 percent of Lebanese territory.
White House and State Department officials have declined to comment on the objectives of the negotiations this week, including whether another ceasefire extension remains the goal, or whether Trump still hopes to host Netanyahu and Aoun in the near future.
In an interview with CBS 60 Minutes over the weekend, meanwhile, Netanyahu said the talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials would necessarily be limited in their capacity to end hostilities because Israel’s real foe is Hezbollah, which won’t be at the table.
“We’ve had to go into Lebanon to prevent a repeat of the invasion we had in Gaza,” he said, referring to the October 2023 attacks. “On the other border, Hezbollah from Lebanon was planning to do even more. They had 5,000 Radwan Force terrorists ready to invade the Galilee.”
Netanyahu said that Israel’s prime objective in this week’s talks was for Lebanon to remove the threat of Hezbollah, even as he acknowledged that might be difficult to achieve so long as Iran is funding the group.
“What we’re talking to them about is, ‘How do we work together to – militarily and politically, possibly splitting up the work – to get rid of Hezbollah?’” he said. “It’s not yet been done; it has to be done.”
Alex Willemyns
Alex Willemyns is MBN’s Washington DC correspondent. He has more than a decade of experience reporting on international relations and U.S. foreign policy.
