Israel seeks Hezbollah disarmament, Lebanon calls for ceasefire in talks in US

Israel and Lebanon laid out different expectations on a peace deal during talks in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, with Israel insisting on Hezbollah's disarmament and Lebanon calling for a ceasefire and concrete measures to ease the severe humanitarian crisis resulting from the US-Israeli war with Iran, according to a statement from the US State Department.

All sides agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue, said the statement.

The meeting marked the first major high-level engagement between the governments of Israel and Lebanon since 1993, it said.

In the statement, the US administration reaffirmed Israel's "right to defend itself" from Hezbollah's continued attacks, suggesting that the Israeli strikes on Lebanon and its ground invasion in the country's south will likely continue.

The Trump administration backs continued talks but any ceasefire deal must be negotiated between the two governments with US mediation, "not through any separate track," said the statement, signaling that Washington does not view Lebanon as part of the current US ceasefire with Iran or the fresh US-Iran peace talks which US President Donald Trump said earlier Tuesday could happen over the next two days.

Lebanese Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter took part in the talks, along with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, as well as US State Department counselor Michael Needham.

Israel and Lebanon have no formal diplomatic relations, and Hezbollah has long been viewed by Israel as a "proxy" of Iran. The negotiating party with Israel is the Lebanese government, not Hezbollah.

"All of the complexities of this matter are not going to be resolved in the next six hours," Rubio said in opening remarks. "This is a process, not an event."

Hezbollah entered the US-Israeli war with Iran on March 2, launching rockets from southern Lebanon toward Israel for the first time since the 2024 ceasefire. Israel responded with ground offensive amid an intensified military campaign targeting multiple areas across the country, killing more than 2,000 people.

At least 35 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon in the past 24 hours, the Lebanese health ministry said in its daily update on Tuesday.