Jakarta, cartitleloans Indonesia
—
Lebanon
and
Israel
for the first time in decades held direct talks involving civilian representatives, marking a new step amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah group.
The meeting took place on Wednesday at the UN Peacekeeping Force (UNIFIL) headquarters in Naqura, southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border.This dialogue was held within the ceasefire monitoring mechanism which has been in effect since November 2024.
Previously, the two countries, which did not have diplomatic relations, always had military officers as official representatives in cross-border meetings.However, the latest meeting was an important moment because it was the first time civil representatives were present.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman, Shosh Bedrosian, called the meeting an “initial effort” to pave the way for ties and economic cooperation.
“This is a historical development. This is the first step towards a new path with Lebanon, and it is clear that the Lebanese side is aware of the economic challenges they face,” he said at a press conference, reported by AFP.
The presence of civil representatives was also appreciated by the United States.The US Embassy in Beirut said special envoy Morgan Ortagus attended the meeting.
Washington views the participation of former Lebanese Ambassador to the US Simon Karam and Israeli National Security Council official Uri Resnick as a form of commitment to the ceasefire mechanism in facilitating political and military dialogue.
The US has in recent months increased pressure on Lebanon to speed up the process of disarming Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group that Israel considers a major threat to regional stability.
A day before attending the meeting in Naqura, Ortagus met Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in Jerusalem.Washington is encouraging the two countries to open direct lines of dialogue to defuse tensions and control Hezbollah’s influence.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said the Lebanese delegation was led by Karam, and that Israel had announced it would send non-military members to sit in on the meeting.Beirut itself emphasized its readiness to negotiate with its southern neighbor.
Netanyahu has on several occasions encouraged Lebanon to consider joining the Abraham Accords, a pact that would allow a number of Arab and Muslim countries to normalize relations with Israel.But concrete steps are still far from being achieved.
Similar negotiations were held in 1983 after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.At that time, an agreement that had the potential to open diplomatic relations was signed, but was never ratified.
The ceasefire is fragile
This meeting took place a few days after the first anniversary of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.The ceasefire ends more than a year of attacks sparked by Hezbollah’s support for Hamas.
However, attacks still occur.Israel continues to carry out bombings on Lebanese territory on the grounds of targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure to hinder efforts to rebuild its military capabilities.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has approved plans to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in the south before the year ends, before expanding the crackdown to other areas.However, Israel considers that these efforts are still far from sufficient and has increased the intensity of its attacks in recent weeks.
Israeli public media, KAN, reported that Israel was preparing for the possibility of a “significant escalation” with Hezbollah, a situation considered “inevitable” despite US efforts to defuse it.
The Israeli military said it had carried out about 1,200 “targeted operations” and “eliminated more than 370 terrorists” from Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups during the ceasefire period.
After meeting Ortagus in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Saar emphasized that Hezbollah was an actor that “violated Lebanon’s sovereignty” and that the group’s disarmament was important for Lebanon’s future as well as Israel’s security.
The latest talks mark a small but symbolic step, opening the door to dialogue after decades of open hostility and fractured relations without diplomatic channels.However, the future of Lebanese-Israeli relations still depends largely on the changing security and political dynamics in the region.
(tis/tis)
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