MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Israel and Lebanon are holding the first direct meeting between government officials in decades. They're taking place at the State Department here in Washington, D.C. It's a possible first step in ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that re-erupted after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran at the end of February. For more on this, we're joined by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf, who is in Beirut. Good morning, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So what can you tell us about this meeting today? Do we have a sense of what we might expect?
LONSDORF: Yeah. These talks are really preliminary. An official briefed on Israel's approach to the talks who was not authorized to speak publicly described them to NPR as, quote, "preparatory." So we shouldn't expect a ceasefire deal or anything that significant to come out of them today. What is significant is that these talks are even happening. Both sides sent their ambassador to the U.S. for this meeting. There have not been direct talks between Israeli and Lebanese government officials in more than 30 years. The Lebanese government has been asking for these talks for weeks, and Israel ignored the offer until last week after the U.S. agreed to a ceasefire with Iran. Hezbollah has said it rejects the talks and has urged the Lebanese government to cancel them.
MARTIN: You're in Beirut. What are you hearing from people there about the talks?
LONSDORF: Yeah. Well, one thing I can tell you for sure is that the war has not stopped. People here are tired of the war and the fighting, but I haven't heard a single person express hope or confidence in these talks yet. Many just don't trust Israel, especially under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government, to act in good faith. You know, more than 2,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes here in the past six weeks, according to Lebanese officials, including more than 350 in a single day last week, many here in central Beirut after Israel struck a hundred times in 10 minutes. I met 37-year-old Ali Abboud here yesterday as he was standing by the rubble of a building hit in those strikes, waiting to see if the remains of his 26-year-old sister would be found. I asked him what he thought of the talks.
ALI ABBOUD: (Speaking Arabic).
LONSDORF: "There will never be peace between Israel and Lebanon," he told me. He said he thought this before this all happened, and now he feels it even stronger. You know, just a reminder - Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire back in 2024 after more than a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. But U.N. peacekeepers recorded more than 10,000 violations of that agreement, and nearly all of them were Israeli.
MARTIN: Does the Lebanese government have any cards to play at these talks?
LONSDORF: You know, that's the major question here, Michel. The fighting in Lebanon is between Israel and Hezbollah and aligned militias. Hezbollah is a major political party in Lebanon and holds seats in Parliament, but it's also a militia that operates independently of the Lebanese government. It's sometimes described as a state within a state. That's because its loyalties lie with Iran, which has long funded and helped arm them. So it's really a question of, how much can the Lebanese government really influence Hezbollah's actions? Israel won't agree to any deal unless there's a tangible plan with the Lebanese government for disarming Hezbollah. This has been a long-standing Israeli demand, but Hezbollah has rearmed regardless and has been firing near-constant rockets into northern Israel during this war.
MARTIN: And what if these talks don't succeed?
LONSDORF: Well, Israel says that its military is prepared to remain, occupying southern Lebanon for many months, even years. Hezbollah has also said it's prepared to keep fighting, and all of that could further destabilize Lebanon as a whole.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Beirut. Kat, thank you.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
