The United States announces that Benjamin Netanyahu will speak for the first time with the leader of Lebanon and is optimistic

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu will “speak” with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared this Thursday the Israeli Minister of Innovation, Gila Gamliel, on military radio.

“The prime minister will speak for the first time with the president of Lebanon after so many years of total breakdown of dialogue between both countries, and it is to be hoped that this initiative will finally lead to the prosperity and development of Lebanon as a State,” declared Gamliel. without specifying when or how they will do it.

US President Donald Trump had earlier announced that the “leaders” of Israel and Lebanon would speak on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social network on Wednesday that Washington is “trying to give some breathing room between Israel and Lebanon.”

“The two leaders haven’t spoken for a long time, about 34 years. It will be tomorrow (Thursday). Great!” he announced.

This announcement comes after the meeting on Tuesday between the ambassadors of both countries in Washington, in the context of the war between Israel and the pro-Iranian Lebanese group Hezbollah.

However, an official Lebanese source denied being aware of the conversation announced by Trump: “We are not aware of any planned contact with the Israeli side and we have not been informed of it through official channels,” he told AFP.

However, despite the announcements of dialogue, the Israeli Army on Thursday intensified its attacks against the Bint Jbeil area, in southern Lebanon. According to a military statement, the “intensification” in the town of Bint Jbeil continues, with soldiers from the Egoz and Yahalom units and the destruction of “70 infrastructures in just one minute” that the Army associates with Hezbollah.

The main clashes between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia are taking place these days in Bint Jbeil, the second largest municipality in the southern governorate of Nabatiye, with approximately 30,000 inhabitants.

Here, theIsraeli forces continue demolishing homesas published by the official Lebanese news agency (NNA), in addition to attacking the Borj El Chmali Palestinian refugee camp (south of Beirut) and bombing the city of Tebnine (south), causing serious damage to its hospital.

For its part, Hezbollah, cited by NNA, claimed seven new attacks against Israeli military positions such as barracks, logistics bases and radars in the north of the country.

The attacks come at a time of uncertainty, and according to the Army they have killed “dozens” of Hezbollah militiamen, the militia supported by Iran.

The clashes do not stop despite the rapprochement between the Israeli and Lebanese authorities this week. On Tuesday, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, held a two and a half hour meeting in Washington, in the presence of the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

The talks held on Tuesday in Washington between Lebanon and Israel – two countries technically at war for decades – were the first direct high-level dialogue between the two since 1993.

These conversations take place after six weeks of fighting between Hizbollah and Israel in Lebanese territory, which have left more than 2,000 dead and more than a million displaced, in a new war that the Netanyahu government justifies by the launch of rockets by the Shiite militia on March 2 in support of Iran.

Israel has refused to include Lebanon in the truce the United States declared with Iran last week.

Las discrepancies between both delegations are notable, since Lebanese government calls for immediate ceasefire that allows for a broader dialogue, but Israel discards it and demands the total disarmament of Hezbollah and the creation of a “security zone” in southern Lebanon that would allow it to control the strip between the border and the Litani River.

The Lebanese president reiterated this Thursday in a statement the importance of a ceasefire, calling it the “natural starting point for direct negotiations between both countries”, without confirming its conclusion.

Israeli forces currently occupy parts of southern Lebanon, and its government has resisted considering any ceasefire until Hezbollah is dismantled.

“The dismantling” of Hezbollah is the first objective of the negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, Netanyahu reaffirmed on Wednesday.

The United States is pressing for an end to the conflict in Lebanon, fearing that it could jeopardize the ceasefire with Iran that has been in force since April 8 and a solution to the conflict, which has shaken the world economy.

Following the failure of negotiations with Iran over the weekend in Islamabad, Washington announced that it is discussing a second round of discussions in Pakistan’s capital.

“Those conversations are taking place,” but there is nothing official yet, declared White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who specified that her government is “optimistic about the prospects for an agreement.”

The spokesman for Iranian diplomacy, Esmail Baqai, confirmed that the warring parties exchanged “several messages through Pakistan” in recent days.

However, he remained firm a key demand of Iran: the country’s right to a civil nuclear programonly opening the door to debates about “the level and type of enrichment” of uranium.

Another of the main points of conflict between the United States and Iran is the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which before the war 20% of the world’s oil and gas transited.

On the ground, Tehran continues to close the strait and Washington has imposed since Monday a blockage to ships leaving or heading to Iranian ports.

The United States said on Wednesday that it had prevented 10 ships from leaving Iranian ports and announced a reinforcement of its sanctions against the Iranian oil sector.

In response, the Iranian army raised the threat of a blockade of the Red Sea, as well as the Strait of Hormuz.

Mohsen Rezaei, advisor to the Iranian Supreme Guide, also threatened to sink American ships if they tried to act as “police” in the strait.