Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that planned talks with Israel aim to end hostilities and the occupation in southern Lebanon, even as Hezbollah and its supporters rejected the negotiations.
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has sharply criticised the Lebanese government’s negotiations with Israel, which are set to enter a second round on Thursday.After the first round of talks last week, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day truce pausing more than six weeks of war between Hezbollah and Israel, an explosive front in the broader war in the Middle East.AdvertisementHezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Agence France-Presse it was in Aoun’s and Lebanon’s “interest” to withdraw from the talks, however adding that his group also wanted the ceasefire to last.Portraits of late Hezbollah leaders, including the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, right, hang on the wall of a damaged coffee shop in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs. Photo: APNew talks between Lebanon’s and Israel’s US ambassadors will take place on Thursday in Washington, a US State Department official said, after the first direct talks between the two countries in decades were held on April 14.AdvertisementAdvertisementSelect VoiceSelect Speed0.8x0.9x1.0x1.1x1.2x1.5x1.75x00:0000:001.00x
