• Israel and Lebanon kick off a fifth round of US-brokered negotiations, with the Israeli envoy describing the talks as a “train wreck”.
• Israeli forces open fire in southern Lebanon, killing two people, in an attack Hezbollah described as a “blatant violation of the ceasefire”.

US pushes for lasting peace as Israel, Lebanon talks begin

The fifth round of peace talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington has began.

The US State Department says their goal “is to end the cycle of violence for good”. They say they “are enabling Israel and Lebanon to negotiate as two sovereign states and to find a way to have peace and security”.

As for the format for these talks, it’s going to be very similar to the previous rounds, where there is both a military track and a political track. On the political track, the goal is to stabilize, to normalize the relationship between Israel and Lebanon. This is a relationship that doesn’t really exist outside of these talks. Lebanon and the Israelis are technically at war, and there is no formal diplomatic relationship between them.

And on the military track, the goal is to de-escalate, to reduce tensions, and to minimize the risk of any sort of spillover that could transform this into a wider regional conflict.

Now, there are still many questions that remain unanswered. But from a diplomatic perspective, at least from the point of view of US officials, the fact that these talks are still ongoing, the fact that this is now the fifth round of negotiations, does show that there remains interest from both Israel and Lebanon towards finding that durable, lasting peace.

Lebanon has never recognized Israel as a sovereign state and the two parties have been in a formal state of war since 1948.

"... the risk of any sort of spillover that could transform this into a wider regional conflict."

As we have commented many times: on June 16, 2025, Netanyahu called on the US for help in the assassination of Khamenei while knowing that Hezbollah would respond. During the six months after his call, the Israeli Mossad and the CIA were preparing the assassination, knowing that Hezbollah would respond.

The CIA needs for its covert activities presidential approval. So, Trump must have knowledge about the preparation thus also knew that Hezbollah would respond.

When Netanyahu resumed his preemptive 12-day war on Iran by assassinating Khamenei, he has not only dragged Hezbollah in his 30-year obsession against Iran. He also spilled over his war on Iran to Lebanon.

When Trump decided to join Netanyahu's war, he spilled over Netanyahu's war across the region by attacking Iran from countries in the Gulf region, making these countries not only a co-belligerent but also a military objective for Iran.

Israel believes US-Iran MoU has given Hezbollah ‘a new lease on life’

When Israel first started the talks with Lebanon in Washington, DC, in April, it believed that Iran had been weakened. But this meeting is the first since the MoU between the US and Iran, and the feeling in Israel is that Hezbollah is getting a new lease on life.

The Israeli ambassador to the US has called this fifth round of talks a “train wreck”. He said that in the beginning, the talks were heading towards a shared goal, which is having an Iran-free Lebanon, an agreement that would lead to peace with Lebanon, as well as the dismantling of Hezbollah.

This ambassador is now saying this is not happening.

The Israelis have been focusing on one thing: that they will not be leaving the so-called “security zone” in southern Lebanon so long as Hezbollah poses a threat to their communities.

They also want the Lebanese government and army to assume responsibility for areas there and to disarm Hezbollah.

Now, the Israelis have been under US pressure to stop their attacks on Hezbollah, and there’s a feeling that their hands are tied, that their operations are being curbed, and limited only to defensive operations. And hence, there is frustration inside Israel, and many voices are criticizing Netanyahu, not only for not meeting strategic goals in southern Lebanon, but also for the rift that they believe is happening now with Washington.

"... so long as Hezbollah poses a threat ... ''

What is currently taking place in the West Bank is a clear example showing who really poses a threat. The Israelis are the ones who create threats to brand the inflicted results of these threats as a threat on them.

It is no different in the context of Lebanon, as Netanyahu's spillover of his war on Iran into Lebanon is creating threats to his own people also branding the inflicted results as a threat.

Syrians reject Trump’s call for Syria to combat Hezbollah in Lebanon

Residents in Damascus have rejected Trump’s suggestion that Syria should confront Hezbollah in Lebanon.

They say Syria should avoid being drawn into new regional conflicts.

In a rare critique, Trump had told Israel to let Syria take on Hezbollah.

Ceasefire in Lebanon continues to hold

In Lebanon, there has been very little to report in the way of military exchanges.

There were reports during nighttime hours of military activity down towards the city of Tyre, of Israeli vehicles on the move, and also reports of gunfire.

That seems to be one of the very few incidents other than that overnight.

The last major incident was of open fire near the city of Nabatieh, almost the best part of 24 hours ago now, with two men being killed, one person wounded. This incident was about residents who were returning home.

In another instance, the Israelis were seeking for justification of their gunfire by saying they were shooting at Hezbollah operatives on board an excavator that failed to heed warning shots. Hezbollah said they were part of a clearing crew removing debris from roads, because there’s been a lot of work there by a civil defense team.

US proposes pilot program for Israel’s withdrawal from parts of Lebanon

Contrary to the Israeli ambassador’s description of the talks in Washington as a “train wreck”, the Israeli military radio says that eight hours of talks were very constructive and that there is progress in discussions of a partial Israeli withdrawal from certain areas.

There is an American proposal of using pilot areas where Israel would withdraw from; the Lebanese army would take over those areas and ensure that there was no Hezbollah presence.

After the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, Israel escalated its invasion in Lebanon, taking over areas beyond the Litani River near Nabatieh, where all this friction is happening.

They are well beyond the initial areas that were occupied by the Israeli army, but according to Israeli reports, it was done precisely because those would be the areas that Israel would be perhaps willing to withdraw from.

There is no breakthrough but certainly talk of perhaps a path forward between Israel and Lebanon, and it is something Israel needs to decouple the Iran and Lebanon tracks.

Expectations in Lebanon ‘tempered’ as talks with Israel continue

The fact that ceasefire talks are happening at all is significant, especially for people in Lebanon.

These are the first direct talks between Lebanon and Israel in decades, and, significantly, they were also the first requested by the Lebanese themselves.

The talks are important for Lebanon, for their sense of self-esteem, for prestige, that they are included in this process.

What happens on Lebanese soil directly impacts the whole peace negotiations between the United States, Israel and Iran, but it often feels as though Lebanon is being left out of this, on the sidelines.

As for the chances of success, the people’s expectations are tempered. And on the reports of a pilot program, with the handing over of some land from Israeli control to Lebanese control, people in Lebanon see that as a possible first step towards Israel withdrawing forces altogether from Lebanon.

Israel has said it’s only ever going to withdraw its forces completely once Hezbollah disarms, but that is a long way to go from that.

"... the first direct talks between Lebanon and Israel ..."

The Lebanese constitution states that the government needs a (constitutional) approval for going into direct talks, which it hasn't.

EU safety agency urges airlines to steer clear of Iranian, Lebanese airspace

The European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has warned that airlines should avoid flying through the airspace of Iran, Iraq and Lebanon despite the interim US-Iran agreement.

In a notice, the agency said short-term violations of the US-Iran ceasefire were possible, in particular in and around the Strait of ⁠Hormuz and neighbouring airspace. It also flagged the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and ⁠the potential for military activity impacting the ⁠airspace of Lebanon.

EASA said ⁠all operators must also exercise caution and take potential risks into account when operating ‌within the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, the United ‌Arab Emirates ‌and Saudi Arabia.

Extending ‌the agency’s conflict-zone advisory for the region until July 1, the notice said: “While the overall level of risk has decreased in the region, the sustainability of the ceasefire remains uncertain in the longer term, with a possibility of rapid escalation.”

Lebanon to ‘consolidate’ truce after Israeli pullout: President

President Joseph Aoun says Lebanon is seeking continued UK support as UN peacekeepers prepare to withdraw in 2027.

He told a visiting British delegation that his government’s efforts are focused on consolidating the southern ceasefire after an Israeli military withdrawal by deploying the Lebanese army.

Reconstruction of destroyed areas will come next, Aoun said, adding that the Lebanon-Israel peace talks in Washington, DC, are separate from the US-Iran negotiations.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has quieted down over the past few days after demands by both Iran and the US for an actual ceasefire.

Israeli defense minister says military will not withdraw from Lebanon, even if US demands it

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz has said Israel will not pull its forces out of southern Lebanon “even if there is an American demand”.

“200,000 residents will not return,” said Katz, referring to the Lebanese forcibly displaced by Israel’s invasion and attacks, in comments carried by The Times of Israel.

“What happened in the past in security zones, where there was also a civilian population [present], was roadside bombs and attacks against the soldiers, and therefore we will not allow that,” added Katz. “We are not withdrawing.”

Israeli army says it attacked Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon

Israel’s military says it has carried out an attack on two Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon’s Ali al-Taher area.

In a statement, the military claimed the fighters were located near Israel’s “security zone” in southern Lebanon, posing “an immediate” threat to Israeli soldiers.

“Immediately after the identification, the air force and ground forces struck the terrorists to remove the threat.”

The Israeli military will “continue to operate to remove immediate threats”, it said.

“security zone”

The security zone is 20 kilometers south of the Litani river, while the Ali al-Taher area or hills is north of that river.

EU diplomatic service proposes three-year training mission for Lebanese military, police.

The EU’s diplomatic ⁠service has drafted plans for a three-year military and civilian mission to advise and train Lebanese forces, reports the Reuters news agency.

The mission would “support the Lebanese authorities in reinforcing territorial control and ⁠border security” by bolstering Lebanon’s armed forces and police, according to a document from the European External Action Service circulated to EU members and seen by the news agency.

“To ⁠this end, the Mission would focus on strengthening land border regiments; Mobile Force and Regional ‌Gendarmerie Units; enhancing Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities; and reinforcing maritime security capacities, including ‌border ‌and port security governance,” said the document.

For any such mission to go ahead, all 27 EU countries would have to approve it.

Reports suggest Israel-Lebanon talks will contain a military-to-military component

There hasn’t been a formal readout of yesterday’s meetings between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington, but those discussions do continue.

It’s being reported that today’s discussions will include a military-to-military component, because one of the issues being discussed is the matter of security in areas currently occupied by the Israeli military in southern Lebanon.

There is a proposal, perhaps, to allow Lebanese forces to replace those Israeli forces, so long as they have been vetted by the United States as having no links to Hezbollah.

That is apparently going to be one of the main topics for today’s discussions.

Two killed in Israeli drone attack in southern Lebanon

At least two people have been killed in an Israeli drone attack in the southern Nabatieh area, Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting.

The attack targeted a vehicle on the Tallat al-Dabsha road near Kfar Reman, NNA said.

Reduction but not cessation of Israeli operations in southern Lebanon

Despite the fact that there is supposed to be a ceasefire, the Israeli army has continued to carry out attacks.

They have been much more limited than what has been over the weekend.

Two people were killed when their car was hit near the village of Kharaman. The Israelis are also still operating on the ground, including in areas that the Lebanese army had, in the past day or so, reopened… including a village called Ain al-Arab, where people had returned to their homes.

An armored Israeli bulldozer and a patrol entered that village and told the local community leader that people "needed to leave" their homes again and that if they did not do so by 5pm (14:00 GMT), those homes would be demolished.

So what we are seeing is a reduction, but not a cessation, of Israeli military activity here in southern Lebanon.

Israeli defense minister says ‘no US demand’ to withdraw from Lebanon

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz says Washington has not demanded that Israel withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon.

“We have announced that in any case we are not withdrawing and, as of this moment – and this is a diplomatic achievement – there is no American demand for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon,” Katz said in an interview at a convention of local leaders in Tel Aviv.

When asked if the army would adhere to such a US request if it arrived, Katz said he told US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while Netanyahu told Trump, that “we are there to protect the residents of the north”.

Israeli artillery shelling reported in Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil area

The Israeli military has targeted the outskirts of the town of Yater with artillery shells, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency is reporting.

Iranian official says Israel responsible for ‘all region’s problems’

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a top Iranian negotiator and speaker of the country’s parliament, says Washington’s “hegemony” has collapsed as a result of the war.

“And the countries of the region must build a new system based on their capabilities,” he said in remarks shared by Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

Speaking after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Ghalibaf also said “harmony” among Muslim countries has now become “an unavoidable necessity”.

Rubio says Israel making no claims to Lebanese territory amid continued occupation

Rubio has been asked whether Washington would support Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

“The only reason Israel is in Lebanon is because Hezbollah launches rockets and drones from there. They’ve made that clear,” the US top diplomat replied.

He stressed that Washington wants Lebanon’s military and government to be in greater control of Lebanese territory while claiming that Israel does “not have any claims on the territory of Lebanon”.

“The more of that area the Lebanese armed forces is able to secure, the less of it’s in Hezbollah’s control, the less Israel will be in Lebanon.”

As we’ve been reporting, Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, have openly said the country has no plans to withdraw from southern Lebanon, where it continues to carry out attacks despite the US-Iran deal stipulating an end to the war on all fronts.

Israel’s defense minister also said earlier that Washington has not demanded that Israel withdraw its troops.

Iran blames US for regional instability, responding to Rubio’s remarks on armed groups

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has rejected remarks by US Secretary of State Rubio linking regional instability to Iran-backed groups, arguing that American policies are the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

“No one will be fooled,” he posted on X, together with a clip of Rubio condemning Iraq-based armed groups, as well as Hezbollah and Hamas.

“We can’t have a peaceful region so long as American militarism and interventionism persist, and their occupying proxy [Israel] continues, with absolute impunity, to inflict endless wars across the region and perpetrate genocide, terror violence and every atrocities.”

"American policies are the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East."

US politics on the Middle East has always been in the Israeli interest.
 

Israeli army says it ‘struck’ two people who crossed ‘security zone’ in Lebanon

The Israeli army, in a brief statement on X, says it attacked two people who crossed into the zone it occupies in southern Lebanon.

The army claimed that the two, traveling in a vehicle, were threats to its forces, without providing evidence.

‘Netanyahu will test Trump’ as Israel continues attacks on Lebanon

A major outstanding question is whether Netanyahu will place himself in a position where Trump thinks Israel will undermine the broader US-Iran deal, says Daniel Levy, head of the US/Middle East Project.

“So the Israeli leadership will test their freedom of manoeuvre,” Levy said, noting that the Israeli prime minister has repeatedly said Israel will maintain a “security zone” in Lebanon.

“Netanyahu will test the [US] president. Netanyahu will hope that despite everything we’ve heard in the last days and week – all the frustrations – that you will have a US that comes around and says, ‘Look, we can’t go too hard against the Israelis. Maybe we have to owe Netanyahu something.'”

That has been how the longtime Israeli leader has operated in the past, Levy added.

“When it comes to Israel in Lebanon, if you actually want to get the Israelis to do what’s in the deal and what you’ve agreed to, you will have to sustain a standoff and pressure and use your leverage,” he said, referring to the US government.

Washington provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually.

UN peacekeepers report relative calm in southern Lebanon

UN peacekeepers reported no missile trajectories or airstrikes from midnight to 4pm local time (1300 GMT) today, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, has revealed.

Haq said that last night, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFIL) “observed two missile trajectories launched from south of the Blue Line that landed north of the Litani River”.

Despite the relative calm, UNIFIL “observed ongoing Israeli airspace violations, mostly by drones”.

According to Haq, Israeli ground activity was also observed, which included “armored vehicle movements, engineering work, and logistical activity”.

He said UNIFIL also “observed four Israeli patrol boats within Lebanese territorial waters southwest of Naqoura.”

Israel needs to withdraw from Lebanon to undercut Hezbollah

Former senior US diplomat Joey Hood says the only durable way out of the Lebanon crisis is a comprehensive peace that removes Israel’s justification for remaining on Lebanese soil and undercuts Iran’s leverage.

“Israel will have withdrawn from all of Lebanese territory and therefore taken away the reason for Hezbollah’s existence, and therefore severely weakened one of Iran’s principal proxies in the region,” he says.

The former ambassador to Tunisia said he would have advised Trump to keep the fighting in Lebanon separate from the MoU.

Instead the MoU, Hood said, “makes now explicit Iran’s influence over the future of Lebanon, which most of the Lebanese people don’t want”.

US-backed Lebanon-Israel border plan tests fragile ceasefire

Talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington, DC, are focused on “pilot zones”, which would gradually transfer territory from Israeli forces to vetted Lebanese army units.

But the plan could threaten the fragile ceasefire.