Israel is expected to raise the bar high in talks with Lebanon on Tuesday , with conditions that will place Beirut under further pressure as it seeks to end the Israeli offensive.
The talks – the first of their kind in decades and a source of controversy in Lebanon – will bring together the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, and the Lebanese ambassador to Washington, Nada Hamadeh Mouawad, joined by the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa.
An anonymous source told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that former Lebanese ambassadors to the US, Simon Karam and Antoine Chedid, will also join Mouawad. No Israeli experts or diplomats are expected to accompany Leiter, who will be joined only by Israeli embassy staff.
Karam had already been appointed in December as a Lebanese civilian representative on a committee overseeing a 2024 ceasefire agreement, in which Israel also appointed its own representative. The two sides held two meetings before the process was suspended.
Tuesday’s meeting in Washington comes months after the Lebanese government signalled its readiness to hold direct negotiations with Israel - an enemy state - to end Israeli strikes that have killed thousands of people and caused billions of dollars in damage. Disarming Hezbollah 'top priority' The latest round of fighting began on 2 March, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, dragging Lebanon into the wider Middle East war . Israel had already been repeatedly violating a 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah with near-daily strikes on Lebanon, and military commanders indicated that it had planned pre-emptive strikes on the country.
Sources told Haaretz that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu views the start of negotiations as a manoeuvre to buy time without halting the fighting in Lebanon, while appearing to show good faith to the US and Donald Trump.
The US president tried to rein in Netanyahu last week and told him to wind down his attacks on Lebanon, after a massive wave of strikes targeted busy commercial and civilian areas in Beirut and other regions on 8 April, killing hundreds and wounding over a thousand.
The attack was described as the worst attack on the capital since the Israeli invasion in the 1980s.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon since March.
The disarmament of Hezbollah is Israel's top priority, although it remains unclear whether Leiter intends to link any progress in the talks to disarmament.
In an interview with CBS News , Leiter said a preliminary discussion with Mouawad last week via telephone had gone well. He added that "if we set Hezbollah aside and allow Israel and Lebanon to hold peace negotiations, we could reach an agreement within two or three months".
President Joseph Aoun and the Lebanese government have sought to avoid a clash with Hezbollah and any internal strife , while also attempting to disarm the group.
Lebanon is urging for a ceasefire or at least a pause in the Israeli attacks while both sides begin negotiations. Hezbollah has rejected disarmament calls , insisting that Israeli attacks must stop and its forces withdrawn from southern Lebanon, where an invasion is ongoing, before it can discuss its arsenal.
Leiter is expected to arrive at the talks with a clear directive not to agree to a ceasefire, sources told Haaretz .
The Israeli envoy’s approach will be "continuing the fight against Hezbollah as if there are no negotiations with the Lebanese government and conducting negotiations with the Lebanese government as if Hezbollah does not exist". According to Haaretz , this approach would make it extremely difficult to find common ground with the Lebanese side, which has repeatedly sought to initiate talks during the war but has conditioned them on a ceasefire.
The Lebanese army, which was tasked with disarming Hezbollah last summer, announced that it had completed the first phase of its plan in southern Lebanon at the end of 2025. Israel pushed back against the announcement, saying Hezbollah was rearming at a quicker pace.