Israel-Lebanon Talks Set While Israel Keeps Striking Hezbollah Positions
Israel has agreed to talks with Lebanon but continues to strike Hezbollah positions in the country’s south. Iran has insisted that Lebanon is covered by the US-Iran ceasefire framework; the United States and Israel have said it is not. Hezbollah said this week it carried out 37 attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon; Israel claims to have killed 550 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon since the start of the year. The Lebanon coverage dispute remains one of the central binding issues in the Iran-US ceasefire architecture and one of the most likely points at which the framework deal could unravel.
The Iran-US ceasefire framework as drafted would include a halt to fighting in Lebanon as part of the broader regional war-ending package; Iran has consistently insisted the Lebanon track is part of the Hormuz/strait reopening deal. The US position is that the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon is a separate bilateral matter not within the scope of the US-Iran framework. Resolution of the Lebanon coverage question is one of the binding sticking points alongside the Hormuz governance question, frozen funds release sequencing and the Iran nuclear-programme talks window. The Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon continued through Eid; Hezbollah has used the period to claim it is “defending Lebanese sovereignty”.