Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israel is aiming to establish full diplomatic relations with Lebanon in talks set to begin as early as next month, the Times of Israel reported on March 12, citing an Israeli official.
The report came just a day after military officials from Israel, Lebanon, France and the United States held a meeting at the United Nations peacekeeping headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.
The Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced after the meeting that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to start talks to delineate the border between the two countries. Working groups were formed to achieve this. The premier’s office also said that Israel had agreed to release five Lebanese detainees as a “gesture to the new Lebanese president,” Joseph Aoun, noting that the release is coordinated with the U.S.
The election of Aoun, who is considered close to the U.S., was seen by observers as a blow to Hezbollah, which was weakened by the last confrontation with Israel.
“The goal is to reach normalization,” the Times of Israel quoted the unnamed official as saying.
The next meeting will be between the political echelons of Israel and Lebanon, said the official, noting that this “means official Israeli diplomacy within Lebanon.”
Last November, the U.S. brokered a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, ending the confrontation that broke out more than a year earlier as a result of the war on the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
Israel withdrew all its forces from southern Lebanon by February 18. However, it maintained five strategic posts and continues to launch strikes against Hezbollah with the pretext of neutralizing direct threats to its security. The group has so far refrained from responding.
While Israel appears to be interested in a more serious engagement with Lebanon, a Lebanese source told the Al-Mayadeen TV, which is close to Hezbollah, that ties with Israel are not on the table.
According to the unnamed sources, the working group agreed upon during the meeting in Naqoura “are not separate from Resolution 1701, and will not engage in direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.”
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war of 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.
Israel engaged politically with Lebanon in the past. The year 1983 saw a short-lived peace agreement between the two countries. And in 2022, the two sides negotiated a maritime border agreement with help from the U.S.
While many in Lebanon are indeed looking to normalize with Israel, Hezbollah remains a major obstacle to such a move. The group could however reposition itself politically on the light of the recent developments of the Middle East, which saw the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the decline of Iran’s influence in the region.
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