LATEST: The US pushes Israel to negotiate with Lebanon over Hezbollah to prevent it from derailing the ceasefire with Iran | International
In breaking news, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
While representatives of Iran and the United States are still preparing for their first meeting to negotiate an end to the war, the 15-day ceasefire is already teetering dangerously. Almost all the disputes revolve around Lebanon, where Israeli bombings have caused more than 300 deaths in just two days of truce. The mediator, Pakistan, made it explicit from the beginning that the country was included in the cessation of hostilities, but Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have defended the opposite. As a result, Tehran has backtracked on its full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and Hezbollah has resumed attacks, launching 70 projectiles since the morning against northern Israel. This Thursday, after the president of Iran, Masud Pezeshkián, assured that the dialogue with Washington will lose meaning if Israel continues bombing Lebanon and after Trump urged Netanyahu to reduce the attacks, the Israeli prime minister has announced by surprise what he had been rejecting: the first “direct talks” with Beirut for the disarmament of Hezbollah. Trump asked him when they spoke on the phone on Wednesday, as confirmed by the US president himself. In a clear example of Washington’s role, the first meeting between Israel and Lebanon (historic, lacking diplomatic relations since the first was born in 1948) will take place at the headquarters of the US State Department, according to the digital media Axios. It will be next week, with the two countries represented by their respective ambassadors there: Yechiel Leiter and Nada Hamadeh Moawad, according to the Israeli press. Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s right-hand man, will also participate in the process. Supporters of the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah chant slogans in front of the Lebanese Prime Minister’s headquarters in Beirut, during a demonstration against the Lebanese Prime Minister. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press) The proposal for direct negotiations is not new. It was made by the Beirut Executive, the most determined to disarm Hezbollah and which illegalized its military actions a month ago, when it resumed attacks against Israel in support of Tehran. Netanyahu did not even respond. The prime minister now justifies his willingness to engage in it as a response to “Lebanon’s repeated requests.” It remains to be seen whether the dialogue will coexist with clashes that have set off alarm bells, due to their potential to overthrow the already fragile ceasefire agreed upon by the United States and Iran. The exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah has not stopped after the announcement of direct talks and Netanyahu has stressed late in the day that “there is no ceasefire in Lebanon” and that the army will continue to “hit hard” Hezbollah until “returning security” to the inhabitants of northern Israel. In the phone call with Netanyahu, Trump also urged him to limit attacks in Lebanon, as confirmed in a brief telephone interview with NBC television: “I spoke with Bibi and it’s going to lower the level. I think we’re going to have to lower it a little.” That same day, its vice president, JD Vance, reiterated the US position that Lebanon is not part of the truce, but defended that Israel had offered to control itself “a little” with the attacks, reports Macarena Vidal Liy. Official Israeli sources insist that violence and dialogue will go in parallel, while Beirut seeks a temporary ceasefire, following the “same model”, but in a “separate channel”, which Iran and the US plan to start this Saturday in Pakistan, according to a statement. official Lebanese source to the Reuters agency. For now, and after killing more than 300 people the day before (according to the latest balance from the Ministry of Health), the Israeli army has continued bombing there during the day and ordered another urgent displacement of the population in Dahiya, the Shiite suburbs of Beirut. Israel has announced that in that wave of bombings on Wednesday (160 in just 10 minutes, according to the army) it killed Ali Yusef Harshi, personal secretary of Naim Qasem, the top leader of Hezbollah. Qasem is also a target and, sooner or later, “his time will come,” Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened this Wednesday. His reading of the situation is that “Hezbollah is desperate for a ceasefire” and Iran fears that “Israel will crush it.” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, revealed this Thursday that his country was on the verge of responding to the brutal attack in Lebanon, but Pakistan convinced them to refrain. “You cannot ask for a ceasefire, accept terms and conditions, accept all the areas where it applies, specifically mention Lebanon, so that later your ally [Israel] start a massacre,” he protested in an interview with the British BBC. Tehran faces a dilemma here: the Lebanese militia – which it finances and arms – opened a new front a month ago precisely in its support, after Israel killed the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and a year of violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon, with almost daily bombings. State television has read a message attributed to his son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, in which he assures that Iran “will take the management of the strategic Strait of Hormuz to a new phase” and that “it does not seek war, but it will not renounce its rights and considers all resistance fronts as a unified entity”, in reference to its allies, such as Hezbollah. Several people try to remove a vehicle destroyed during an Israeli air strike, in Beirut, Lebanon. Chris McGrath (Getty Images) The president of Iran, Masud Pezeshkián, had issued a statement on the social network X in which defined the attacks in Lebanon as a “flagrant violation” of the ceasefire agreement, as well as a “dangerous signal of deception and lack of commitment to the possible agreements” that could be reached with the United States starting this Saturday in Islamabad, where talks are scheduled to begin “The continuation of these actions will make the negotiations meaningless. […] “Iran will never abandon its Lebanese sisters and brothers,” he adds. Lebanon has focused diplomatic efforts during the day. The high representative of EU foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, has asked to include it in the truce and accused Israel of “severely straining it.” And more than 60 UN member countries have signed a declaration that confirms their “deep concern about the escalation of tensions in Lebanon”, where three Indonesian soldiers – part of a multinational brigade under Spanish command—of the UN peacekeeping mission, reports María Antonia Sánchez-Vallejo. The situation there and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have transformed in record time the optimism generated by the cessation of hostilities (by avoiding at the last moment the bloody catastrophe with which Trump threatened Iran) into global concern for the health of the truce. The finger remains on the trigger, according to the simile used by some and others: Netanyahu, this Wednesday, and. Pezeshkián, this Thursday. As a sign of the uncertainty, the European Aviation Safety Agency has extended its recommendation to airlines to avoid the airspace of the Middle East and the Gulf until April 24, that is, during the 15 days of truce. Dialogue in Islamabad A Pakistani source with knowledge of the conversations has indicated to the Reuters agency that the inclusion of Lebanon and Yemen (where the Houthis have threatened this Thursday to launch missiles against Israel again) in The ceasefire “will be discussed and resolved in the next talks.” In Islamabad, the authorities have already blocked access to three kilometers of the hotel where the peace talks will begin. The other key issue is, once again, the Strait of Hormuz, the main passageway for a fifth of the world’s supply of oil and other vital goods, such as fertilizers. Khatibzadeh has stated that Iran will “guarantee security for safe passage” if the Israeli attacks on Lebanon cease. The ceasefire is conditional on its reopening, which is why it once again becomes a major challenge when the truce is just taking its first steps. For now, it will be limited to 15 ships per day, according to a high-ranking Iranian source cited by the TASS agency. Tehran partially closed the strait, which serves as a passage between the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, in retaliation for the attack by Israel and the United States on February 28, which started the war.
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by Internacional en EL PAÍS and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.