Israel and Lebanon agree to ceasefire as negotiations continue

The Israeli and Lebanese delegations meeting in Washington agreed to implement a ceasefire conditional on the Shiite militia Hezbollah stop its attacks against Israeli territory and cease its operations in the south of the Arab country.

With the mediation of the United States, they designed a plan to create “pilot zones” in Lebanon that are controlled by the Lebanese Army and exclude the Islamist group, they detailed in a joint statement.

This Wednesday it was learned that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, called the Israeli prime minister “fucking crazy,” Benjamin Netanyahu, during a phone call to discuss the de-escalation in Lebanon, but stated that the two work very well together.

The delegations, led by the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon to the United States, Yechiel Leiter and Nada Hamadeh, met this Tuesday and Wednesday at the headquarters of the State Department where it was the fourth round of peace negotiations that they maintain this year.

The first was held on April 14 and meant the highest level contact between Israel and Lebanon, neighboring countries that lack diplomatic relations, since 1993.

Israel has broken and intensified its invasion of Lebanon to, as he says, respond to the launch of projectiles from Hezbollah, which opposes negotiations.

According to a joint statement, the round concluded this Wednesday served to agree on the implementation of a ceasefire that “it is conditional on the total cessation of Hezbollah’s shooting and the evacuation of all its operatives” between the Litani River and the Israeli border.

“Both sides agreed, with guidance from the United States, to move quickly on the creation of pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territoryexcluding all non-state actors,” they added in reference to Hezbollah.

They assured that “These measures will allow progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement” and agreed to resume talks on June 22 “with a view to reaching a comprehensive agreement.”

“All countries reaffirmed that The future of relations between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by both sovereign governments. They rejected any attempt, by a state or a non-state actor, to take the future of Lebanon hostage,” an implicit reference to Iran, accused of supporting the pro-Iranian group Hezbolllah.

Previously, Trump had insisted on “separating” the negotiations on Lebanon of those relating to Iranwhile Tehran considers that it is the same issue.

In parallel, the talks with Hamasthe other front that Israel has open in Gazathey stagnate. The Palestinian Islamist movement has postponed until Sunday a new series of talks in Egypt aimed at implementing the fragile ceasefire agreement with Israel in Gaza, it told the AFP a source close to the negotiations.

Hamas and Israel accuse each other of violating ceasefire which came into force in October, two years after the war unleashed on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement against Israel.

The meeting in Egypt was initially scheduled for this Wednesday in the Mediterranean city of El Alamein and was to include a Hamas delegation led by the main negotiator, Jalil Al Hayya, along with Palestinian factions such as Islamic Jihad and mediators from Egypt, Türkiye and Qatar.

“Hamas and Palestinian factions are expected to begin consultative meetings in Cairo next Saturday,” before meetings between Palestinian movements and mediators on Sunday, according to the source.

He noted that Hamas had “asked to postpone the talks,” calling them meaningless amid the “Israeli intransigence“. The transition to the second phase of the ceasefire, which was supposed to involve the disarmament of Hamas and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army, has been stalled for months.