Lebanon’s military is expected to demand a complete halt to Israeli attacks during the planned military-level talks with Israeli officials at the Pentagon.
Israel’s military publicly ordered all civilians to evacuate areas south of the Zahrani River on Wednesday, labeling a massive swath of southern Lebanon a “combat zone” and threatening to use “extreme force” against Hezbollah. The evacuation zone includes Lebanon’s second-largest city, Tyre, as well as the city of Nabatiyeh.
On Thursday, Israeli aircraft struck a residential building near Beirut despite US warnings to limit air raids in the Lebanese capital amid ongoing negotiations.
As of Thursday, officials familiar with the planned meetings in Washington said the trilateral talks at the Pentagon were still expected to proceed. However, the officials noted that the expanding Israeli air and ground assault could derail them at any moment. According to local media, the Lebanese army dispatched its delegation to the United States on Tuesday to prepare for the negotiations.
The delegation is reportedly headed by the army’s director of operations, Brig. Gen. George Rizkallah, and includes Brig. Gen. Ziad Rizkallah, Brig. Gen. Omar Halihil, Brig. Gen. Wael Abbas, Col. Mazen Al-Hajj and Col. Wadih Rafoul, with the participation of the military attache at the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, Brig. Gen. Oliver Hakmeh.
What’s on the agenda?
Ahead of the trip, the delegation met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and army commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal in Beirut. It was tasked with demanding a complete cessation of hostilities against Lebanon as a prerequisite for any progress in the negotiations.
The local Al-Jadeed news channel cited security sources as saying that Haykal instructed the delegation to present four main points during Friday’s talks: The army’s priority is preserving civil peace and internal stability despite ongoing Israeli attacks; the army is ready to revise its plan to disarm non-state actors, but it can only implement it after the full enforcement of the ceasefire announced last month; the ceasefire must be consolidated and extended across all Lebanese territory; and the army requires adequate equipment to carry out sensitive missions such as dismantling explosives and securing military facilities.
Late last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was preparing to train unspecified Lebanese Armed Forces units to more aggressively confront Hezbollah. The Pentagon’s top commander in the Middle East, Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, later told Senate lawmakers that several Lebanese Armed Forces units could reasonably be trained and equipped under new congressional authorizations signed into law last year.
“We’re not there yet,” a well-placed US official briefed on the proposal told Al-Monitor this week. “First we have to let diplomacy do its work … to sustain the ceasefire,” the official said.
Talks under fire
Israel has intensified its airstrikes in Lebanon on the eve of the military-level talks, expanding operations in the south — including in Nabatiyeh and Tyre — as well as in the eastern Bekaa Valley, targeting what it says are Hezbollah infrastructure sites and operatives. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for several drone attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the city of Choueifat. The Israeli military confirmed carrying out a strike in Beirut, though it was not immediately clear who had been targeted.
Israeli media reported that Ali al-Husseini, commander of the missile unit in the Imam Hussein Division — a brigade affiliated with Iran’s Quds Force that operates alongside Hezbollah — was killed in the strike.
The rare strike in the capital came after the Israeli military declared on Wednesday that all areas south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River constituted an active combat zone and ordered residents to evacuate. In a separate statement, the military said it had struck roughly 550 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since Monday.
At least 31 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon on Tuesday alone, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, bringing the total number of people killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2 to 3,213.
The Lebanese military, meanwhile, said three soldiers were killed in separate strikes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley this week.
The Israeli escalation is widely viewed as an attempt to increase pressure on Lebanon ahead of the upcoming negotiations. Israel has insisted that any agreement with Lebanon must include provisions for the full disarmament of Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Lebanon and Israel began landmark direct talks at the ambassadorial level in Washington on April 16, weeks after Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah rocket attacks.
During the third round of talks in mid-May at the US State Department, the two sides agreed to establish separate military and political tracks to continue negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement. Lebanon is seeking a permanent end to Israeli attacks, a full Israeli military withdrawal from the country, the return of residents displaced by the fighting, the delineation of the Lebanese-Israeli border and the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Lebanese and Israeli representatives are scheduled to meet for a fourth round of political talks in Washington on June 2-3.
Friday’s talks at the Pentagon were arranged by the Trump administration in hopes of laying the groundwork for these negotiations and sharing insights that could facilitate next week’s talks, according to Al-Monitor sources.
