Lebanon waits for Washington to set the date for Israel talks

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that Lebanon is waiting for the United States to set a date for the start of formal negotiations with Israel, as the two countries navigate a delicate diplomatic process that has already yielded two rounds of preparatory talks in Washington.

Those meetings, between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors, facilitated by American mediators, have so far produced a ten-day ceasefire that entered into force on 17 April, subsequently extended by three weeks following a second round of discussions. It marks the first direct contact between the two countries since 1983.

But Aoun was clear that talks cannot progress while violations of the truce continue. "Israel must definitively understand that the only path to security is through negotiations, but it must first fully implement the ceasefire before moving on to negotiations," he said. "Israeli aggressions cannot be allowed to continue after the ceasefire announcement."

The Lebanese president's statement reflects a carefully calibrated position: openness to dialogue, but conditioned on Israeli compliance with the terms already agreed. It also signals Beirut's awareness that Washington holds the key to unlocking the next phase, and that Lebanon intends to hold both Israel and the United States to their commitments.

For a country that has endured decades of conflict and instability, the prospect of a negotiated arrangement with Israel represents both an extraordinary opportunity and a profound political risk  one that Aoun appears determined to manage on Lebanon's own terms.