France, April 14 -- The Lebanese, Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah which is battling Israel, has warned it would not abide by any agreements that may result from the Washington meeting.

Naim Qassem - the leader of Hezbollah  - called for the talks to be scrapped before they even began, describing them as "futile".

Lebanon was pulled into the region-wide war on March 2 after Hezbollah attacked Israel.

Since then Israeli strikes - including an extremely heavy attack on Beirut on 8 April - have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than one million, despite international calls for a ceasefire. And Israeli ground forces have invaded southern Lebanon.

The meeting, mediated by Secretary of S...