Lebanon talks hit roadblock as Israel weighs next steps

Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian 

Israel appears unoptimistic about the possibility of holding a new round of direct negotiations with Lebanon.

This is the main takeaway from a meeting between U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

The meeting was also attended by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and National Security Adviser Shmuel Ben Ezra. It came as part of efforts to convene a new round of negotiations in Rome, despite Israeli reports indicating that talks have reached an impasse over progress on Hezbollah’s disarmament and the implementation of the framework agreement, particularly regarding the pilot zones.

These developments come as the Israeli army threatened to expand its operations in Lebanon, while Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stepped up his warnings against Iran.

The renewed Israeli threats toward Lebanon followed what Israel claimed was the launch of a Hezbollah drone toward northern Israel.

The Israeli army accused Hezbollah of coordinating with Tehran in an attempt to draw Tel Aviv into a broad response, raising questions in Israel over the scale of any potential response and whether its red line is tied to a “Beirut for northern settlements” equation.

The tension and rhetoric later eased after it emerged that no drone had been launched and that the incident was caused by a false alarm, possibly triggered by a bird or a flock of aircraft.

Before the situation became clear, however, the Israeli army had struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the Nabatieh area and threatened to continue destroying the group’s infrastructure across Lebanon.

It also stressed that it would intensify its attacks in the Ali al-Taher area, citing repeated attempts to target its forces deployed in southern Lebanon.