After three sessions in Washington, direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon have taken a serious turn. At the end of two days of talks, Thursday, May 14, and Friday, May 15, under the auspices of the US State Department, the two delegations, led by lawyer Simon Karam, the special envoy of the Lebanese president, and Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the US, set out a framework for their work and arranged to address the core political and military issues at their next meeting.
Both sides agreed to a 45-day extension of the truce. The ceasefire, which began on April 17, has so far been largely symbolic. It reduced, but did not stop, clashes between Israel and the Shiite movement Hezbollah. On Friday, six people, including three paramedics with the Islamic Health Committee, an organization affiliated with Hezbollah, were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.
In a statement released Friday evening, US State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott welcomed two days of "constructive discussions" that brought about "significant progress on the political front."
