Lebanon and Israel are set to hold the first direct diplomatic talks in decades in Washington following more than a month of war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group that has rocked the tiny Mediterranean country.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will take part in the talks in Washington with Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad.
At least 2089 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the health ministry says, while 6762 others were wounded.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow
More than one million people are displaced.
The Lebanese government hopes the talks will pave the way to an end to the war.
While Iran has set ending the wars in Lebanon and the region as a condition for talks with the United States, Lebanon insists on representing itself.
The Israeli military continues an invasion into southern Lebanon, which some Israeli officials have said aims to create a depopulated “security zone” from the border to the Litani River, some 30km.
Israeli security forces inspect a damaged residential building after it was struck by a projectile fired from Lebanon, in Nahariya, northern Israel Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Credit: Ariel Schalit/APGraves bearing photos of Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli strikes are seen in a cemetery in Choueifat, Lebanon, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Credit: Emilio Morenatti/AP
Iran-backed Hezbollah, though weakened in its last war with Israel that ended in November 2024, still fires drones, rockets and artillery daily into northern Israel and on ground troops inside Lebanon.
The Israeli and Lebanese governments were meeting to discuss ways to ensure long-term security on Israel’s northern border and support for Lebanon seeking to take control of its territory and political future from Hezbollah, a US State Department official said.
They will be the first talks between the two since 1993.
Lebanon’s top political authorities, critical of Hezbollah’s decision to fire rockets towards Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, quickly proposed direct talks in a bid to stop the escalation, hoping Israel would not launch its ground invasion.
Israel did not respond positively until last week, after it launched 100 strikes across the country, including in the heart of the Lebanese capital.
Beirut wants a truce as a prerequisite to talks, similar to Pakistan-brokered negotiations between the US and Iran.
“Israel’s destruction of Lebanese territories is not the solution, nor will it yield any results,” said President Joseph Aoun Monday, who came to power vowing to disarm non-state groups including Hezbollah.
Workers remove the rubble as rescuers keep searching for a missing woman and girl at a destroyed building that was hit on April 8, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) Credit: Hussein Malla/APMourners react during the funeral of 13 state security officers killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s coastal city of Sidon, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Credit: Emilio Morenatti/AP
Israel has ruled out a ceasefire.
“We will not discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah, which continues to carry out indiscriminate attacks against Israel and our civilians,” Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Monday.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Kassem delivered a fiery speech calling on Lebanon to cancel the talks.
Hezbollah wants a return to the 2024 agreement under which talks were conducted indirectly with the US, France and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon as mediators.
Mammoth $1 sale after Lego collector parts with 50-year haul
1 min read
Australia’s oldest department store facing uncertain future
1 min read
