A historic meeting is expected to take place on Tuesday in Washington, DC, when Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter will sit down with his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh, for the first official meeting between the sides.
The meeting, which is being held under the auspices and in the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is intended to establish basic principles for future negotiations and break the long-standing taboo on direct contacts between the countries.
To prepare for the meeting, Ambassador Leiter received a rare security briefing from senior officers from the IDF's Strategic Department. The briefing, which was approved by Defense Minister Israel Katz and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, was intended to equip the ambassador with the latest operational data in preparation for the diplomatic talks.
Behind the scenes in Beirut, there are calls expressing the dire distress in the country. A source in the Lebanese President's Office said that the talks are an attempt "to save what remains and stop the bloodbath." The same source also attacked the Hezbollah terror organization, noting that "if not for Hezbollah's war adventure, we wouldn't need these negotiations. Lebanon is coming to correct others' mistakes."
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed hope on Monday that the talks would result in a ceasefire. "There is an opportunity now to reach a sustainable solution, which is what Lebanon desires. However, this cannot be a unilateral solution. Israel must respond to Lebanese, Arab, and international calls to cease its aggression against Lebanon and begin negotiations, especially since the successive Israeli wars against Lebanon have failed to achieve Israel's objectives since 1982," Aoun stated during a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
At the same time, Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem called for Lebanon to call off the meeting entirely. "Our decision in the resistance is not to surrender. We will let the battlefield speak for itself. We reject negotiations with the Israeli entity; they are futile and require a Lebanese agreement and consensus. No one has the right to drag Lebanon down this path without Lebanese consensus," he stated in a televised address on Monday.
The gaps between the sides remain significant. Beirut is insisting on a ceasefire, at least a temporary one, as a condition to advance the talks. Israel prefers to conduct negotiations simultaneously with military pressure on Hezbollah to secure better conditions.
Both sides aim to separate the Lebanese front from the Iranian front, to prevent Tehran from dictating the date of the end of the fighting.