\n 2026-05-14T13:38:51+00:00<\/p>\n
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Shafaq News- Washington<\/p>\n
Lebanese and Israeli negotiating delegations formally opened a new round
\nof direct talks at the US State Department in Washington on Thursday, according
\nto the Israeli Army Radio, with sessions scheduled to run through Friday.<\/p>\n
The talks came against a backdrop of continuing Israeli military
\nactivity across Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have recorded more than 8,500
\nIsraeli raids since March 2, which, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry,
\nhave killed 2,896 people and injured 8,824 others, including women and
\nchildren.<\/p>\n
Lebanese official sources, quoted by local media, said that Lebanon’s
\ndelegation will demand that Israel halt all strikes and military operations in
\nLebanese territory and refer any suspected Hezbollah sites to a joint
\nmonitoring mechanism rather than act unilaterally. The sources added that
\nLebanon does not consider the existing ceasefire guarantees sufficient.<\/p>\n
Israel, for its part, is insisting on the right to continue operations
\nin southern Lebanon. Washington has told Beirut it is pressing to prevent any
\nstrikes on the Lebanese capital and its southern suburbs, the sources said.<\/p>\n
A ceasefire extension is expected, though its duration remains
\nunresolved. Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon is conditioned on the
\ndisarmament of Hezbollah, and Israel is seeking to expand a buffer zone in the
\nsouth to a depth exceeding ten kilometers \u2014a demand framed around neutralizing
\nthe threat posed by Hezbollah drone capabilities.<\/p>\n
Lebanon’s negotiating team is led by former ambassador Simon Karam,
\njoined by Lebanon’s ambassador to Washington, Nada Hamadeh Mouawad, and
\nmilitary representatives. Israel’s delegation is headed by its Washington
\nambassador, Yechiel Leiter \u2014a personal envoy of Prime Minister Benjamin
\nNetanyahu on Lebanese and Syrian affairs and Israel’s primary liaison with
\nWashington across most bilateral files\u2014 accompanied by a military figure.<\/p>\n
The US side includes Washington’s envoys to Israel and Lebanon, Mike
\nHuckabee and Michel Issa.<\/p>\n
The previous round was held at the White House, with President Donald
\nTrump attending alongside his vice president and secretary of state, as well as
\nthe Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-05-14T13:38:51+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Washington Lebanese and Israeli negotiating delegations formally opened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[152,37,93,39332,10383],"class_list":{"0":"post-113648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-breaking","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-lebanon","11":"tag-lebanon-israel-talks-open-in-washington","12":"tag-talks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116573271636299268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}