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Lebanon Appoints Civilian for Israel Talks to Avert Escalation

A UNIFIL patrol near the Israeli border in Naqoura, southern Lebanon (AFP)
A UNIFIL patrol near the Israeli border in Naqoura, southern Lebanon (AFP)
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Lebanon Appoints Civilian for Israel Talks to Avert Escalation

A UNIFIL patrol near the Israeli border in Naqoura, southern Lebanon (AFP)
A UNIFIL patrol near the Israeli border in Naqoura, southern Lebanon (AFP)

Lebanon on Wednesday made its most significant shift in the way it negotiates with Israel by assigning a civilian to lead indirect talks for the first time since 1983. The move is aimed at easing United States pressure and heading off Israeli threats of a wider war.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly reframed the step as an early attempt to build the basis for economic cooperation between the two countries, which remain technically at war.

Lebanon's presidency announced that former ambassador Simon Karam would head the Lebanese team in the committee known as the Mechanism, a forum that until Tuesday had been strictly military.

Karam’s designation is seen as a bold shift in a negotiating track that has remained exclusively military for the last four decades.

Civilians have only joined in technical roles, including experts who accompanied the military led team that negotiated the 2022 maritime border deal with Israel.

The last time a civilian headed the Lebanese side was during the May 17, 1983 talks that produced a security agreement with Israel which collapsed less than a year after it was signed.

Domestic Consensus and Foreign Alignment

The presidency framed the decision as a response to the appreciated efforts of the United States government, which chairs the military technical committee for Lebanon.

It said the appointment followed the American side’s confirmation that Israel had agreed to include a civilian in its delegation, and was coordinated with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

The move did not come as a surprise. The decision was taken weeks ago, and the president informed the speaker and the prime minister.

According to a Lebanese source following the process, the three leaders agreed to add a civilian expert or technician.

But the naming of Karam was announced from the presidential palace, which holds the authority to define the technical specialty, meaning President Jospeh Aoun handled the choice, expertise and biography of the nominee.

The source said the delegation had been military based to match the committee chaired by an American general.

But the addition of a civilian, in the form of United States envoy Morgan Ortagus, required expanding both the Israeli and Lebanese teams to reflect the mixed military and civilian representation.

Under the Armistice Framework

The expansion is not viewed as a step toward normalization, the source said, stressing that the indirect talks fall under the November 2024 cessation of hostilities agreement. Lebanon made its decision and has proceeded through the Mechanism since then.

The source added that the enlargement stems from that agreement, and remains within its parameters, noting that Lebanon’s negotiating ceiling will not exceed the 1949 armistice agreement with Israel.

Netanyahu Leaps to Economic Cooperation

The decision also served as a response to what Lebanese officials see as Netanyahu’s haste to frame the track as economic negotiations.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said he had instructed an acting national security council chief to send a representative to Lebanon for talks with government and economic officials as an initial attempt to lay the basis for a relationship between the two countries, which remain officially at war.

A Lebanese source denounced the Israeli statement, saying the problem with Netanyahu is that whenever Lebanon takes a step or offers something, he demands more, to the point of wanting Lebanon to surrender itself.

The source insisted the Mechanism talks are not economic.

Lebanon also fears Israel may seek to undermine the 2022 maritime boundary deal and challenge Lebanon’s offshore resources by reopening them to negotiation after Israeli officials recently warned they could revisit the agreement.

Staving Off War

Lebanon’s move was driven by political and international considerations. Sources familiar with Karam’s appointment said President Aoun acted to avert a fresh Israeli escalation and to block a renewed war, while also advancing the message he delivered in his Independence Day speech.

The sources said the coordinated step with Berri and Salam prevented a widening of the conflict, embarrassed Israel internationally by demonstrating Lebanese openness to international demands, and met the United States request to add a civilian to the committee.

The American sponsorship of the move, they added, helps deter Israeli escalation. They said the delegation is a negotiating tool but the final decision rests with the cabinet.

The aim of the talks is to halt Israel’s ongoing war and implement the principle of exclusive state control of weapons. The sources rejected the idea that the path could expand toward normalization.

They said Hezbollah now accepts that the only way forward is a settlement based on keeping the area south of the Litani River free of its weapons and removing the pretexts Netanyahu uses to inflame tensions.

Mechanism Meeting

The Mechanism committee held its fourteenth meeting after the addition of civilian participants. The United States embassy in Beirut said the session in Naqoura assessed ongoing efforts to reach a lasting arrangement for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon.

The embassy said former Lebanese ambassador Simon Karam and senior Israeli National Security Council Foreign Policy Official Dr. Uri Resnick joined United States adviser Morgan Ortagus as civilian participants.

Their inclusion, it said, reflects the Mechanism’s commitment to facilitating political and military discussions aimed at lasting security, stability and peace for all communities affected by the conflict.

All parties welcomed the expanded participation as an important step toward ensuring the Mechanism’s work is grounded in sustained civilian dialogue alongside military dialogue.

The committee looks forward to working closely with Karam and Resnick in upcoming sessions and to incorporating their recommendations as it continues to strengthen lasting peace along the border.

 

 

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Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Boycotts Cabinet Session over Iran Ambassador Expulsion

A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Boycotts Cabinet Session over Iran Ambassador Expulsion

A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)

Ministers from Hezbollah and its ally Amal boycotted Lebanon's cabinet session on Thursday in protest over the government declaring the Iranian ambassador persona non grata, a Lebanese official told AFP.

The two Shiite parties have a combined four ministers, with one independent Shiite also represented in the cabinet present at the meeting, the official said, as the spat over the Iranian diplomat's expulsion escalated.

Hezbollah is an armed movement backed by Iran, which also has political representation in both government and parliament.

Arab World

Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that it would create a “security zone” up to the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border in some places. He said troops would destroy homes, which he claimed were being used by militants, and that residents would not return until northern Israel is safe.

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, in which Israeli forces flattened and largely depopulated the eastern half of the Palestinian territory, Katz said on Tuesday. Israel has said it won't withdraw from the enclave until Hamas disarms as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

“We have ordered an acceleration in the destruction of Lebanese homes in contact-line villages to neutralize threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza,” Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated.

From one war to the next

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon except for five strategic hilltops along the border.

Lebanese returned to find that homes, infrastructure, and some entire villages destroyed. Israel said it had dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure that could have been used to launch an Oct. 7-style attack, and it continued to strike what it said were militant targets on a near-daily basis after the truce.

Hezbollah resumed it attacks after Israel and the United States launched the war with Iran on Feb. 28, accusing Israel of having repeatedly violated the ceasefire. Israel accused Lebanon's government of failing to carry out its pledge to disarm Hezbollah, despite its unprecedented steps toward criminalizing the group.

In the latest fighting, Israel has launched blistering air raids across Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people — mostly outside of the border area — and displacing over a million. It has warned residents to evacuate a wide swath of the south, extending from the border to the Zahrani River, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.

The Israeli military says it has launched a limited ground operation. Political leaders speak of more ambitious plans.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said this week that the current war must end with “fundamental change.”

“The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,” he said.

Echoes of an earlier occupation Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982 during the country's civil war. Hezbollah, established that year, waged a guerrilla campaign that eventually ended the Israeli occupation in 2000.

This time around, Israel has bombed seven bridges over the Litani, the northern edge of a UN-patrolled buffer zone established after previous conflicts. Israel says Hezbollah was using the bridges to move fighters and weapons, and that its military will control the remaining crossings.

Heavy fighting has meanwhile erupted in the town of Khiam, the fall of which would cut off the south from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, another area with a large Hezbollah presence.

After the bridges were bombed, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of seeking to sever the south from the rest of the country “to establish a buffer zone, entrench the reality of occupation, and pursue Israeli expansion within Lebanese territories.”

UN peacekeepers say the bombing of the bridges and ongoing clashes have hindered their operations and put personnel at risk.

“This is the closest fighting activity we have seen to our positions,” said Kandice Ardel, spokesperson for the UN mission known as UNIFIL. “Bullets, fragments, and shrapnel have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.”

Ardel said peacekeepers at observation points have seen a growing presence of Israeli troops and “engineering assets,” though they have not seen any new military positions built yet.

‘Different shades’ of control

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East think tank in Beirut, said Israel has already established “different shades” of control.

“The first line of borders is a no-man zone. This is basically a large parking lot that is facing Israel,” he said. “There is nothing there, no movement, nothing at all.”

Lebanese movement is restricted farther north. During last year's olive harvest, farmers struggled to reach their groves because of regular Israeli strikes and had to be accompanied by Lebanese troops and UNIFIL peacekeepers, who coordinated with Israel.

Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Institute and a retired Israeli military officer, said Israel will likely establish a more extensive area of control stretching farther north.

She acknowledged that Israel was unlikely to defeat Hezbollah and was at risk of having to maintain a long-term presence in southern Lebanon.

“But the other alternative is to take the risk that we will be slaughtered. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

No diplomatic offramp in sight

Lebanon's government has broken a longstanding taboo by proposing direct talks with Israel. It has also taken action against Hezbollah since the last war, criminalizing its activities and claiming to have dismantled hundreds of military positions.

But neither the US nor Israel has shown any interest in such talks as they focus on the wider war with Iran.

If negotiations occur, Israel could demand major concessions in exchange for relinquishing territory taken by force — an updated version of the decades-old “land for peace” formula.

Israel seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is in talks with the new government in Damascus about an updated security arrangement. In Gaza, it has vowed to keep half the territory until the militant Palestinian Hamas group lays down its arms, as each side has accused the other of violating the truce reached in October.

Lebanese who fled their homes are meanwhile in limbo — and some fear they may never return.

Elias Konsol and his neighbors fled the Christian border village of Alma al-Shaab with UNIFIL's help. He was reunited with his mother, who cried in his arms, at a church near Beirut where funeral services were being held for a resident killed in an Israeli strike.

Konsol said there were no weapons or Hezbollah fighters in his village, but it was forced to evacuate anyway.

“We no longer know our fate,” he said. “We don’t know if we will see our homes and village again.”

Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said Thursday that it struck10 Israeli Merkava tanks in three southern towns along the border.

In a series of separate statements, Hezbollah said that its members targeted the advanced Israeli tanks with guided missiles in the towns of Deir Siryan, Debel, and Al-Qantara, and achieved confirmed hits.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of War in the center of Tel Aviv, and the Dolphin barracks of the Military Intelligence Division north of Tel Aviv with a number of missiles.

The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon after the army announced it was conducting ground operations against Hezbollah.

"Staff sergeant Ori Greenberg, aged 21, from Petah Tikva, a soldier of the Reconnaissance unit, Golani Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.

In total, three Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in south Lebanon since Hezbollah drew the country into the Israel and US war on Iran by launching rocket attacks against Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel is responding by launching large-scale raids on Lebanon, while its forces have advanced into southern Lebanon.

After the Lebanese Presidency repeatedly announced its readiness to open direct negotiations with Israel in order to end the war, Hezbollah announced its refusal to negotiate "under fire."

Its Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said Wednesday in a statement: "When negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire is proposed, it is an imposition of surrender and a deprivation of all of Lebanon's capabilities."

He called on the government to "reverse its decision to criminalize resistance and the resistance fighters," after announcing a ban on the party's security and military activities, as part of a series of unprecedented measures it has taken since the outbreak of the war.