Beirut/Jerusalem, April 23 -- Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors are expected to hold their first direct meeting in decades at the State Department on Thursday for a second round of negotiations, as tensions flare further in West Asia amid the Iran war.
The first direct negotiations between the two states since 1993, the talks are intended as a preparatory meet to shape the actual meeting between Beirut and Jerusalem, and resolve all differences clearly, with the Thursday meeting primarily geared towards resolving the Israeli advance in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah militants.
The technocratic government in Beirut, which came to power in 2025, is caught between a rock, and a hard place, forced to either endure sustained Israeli attacks...