By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa
The United States President Donald Trump said the leaders of Lebanon and Israel would speak on Thursday, without identifying participants or giving details.
Benjamin Netanyahu is though expected to speak to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, one of his ministers said today, in what would be a historic first.
Israeli minister for innovation, science and technology Gila Gamliel confirmed the talks after US President Donald Trump said the pair would speak at some stage today.
But Aoun did not confirm the call, and, in a statement from his office, stressed the importance of agreeing a ceasefire as a starting point for negotiations.
If they take place, the talks would come as Washington pushes to ease hostilities following the first direct talks between the two countries in decades this week, when their ambassadors met in the US capital.
Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war on 2 March after Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, attacked Israel.
Since then, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than a million, despite international calls for a ceasefire, and Israeli ground forces have invaded the country’s south.
“Trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon,” Trump said Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, referring to the ambassadors meeting held in Washington the day before – the first meeting of its kind since 1993.
Israeli minister Gamliel later said “the prime minister will speak for the first time with the president of Lebanon after so many years of a complete breakdown in dialogue between the two countries”.
“This move will hopefully ultimately lead to prosperity and flourishing for Lebanon as a state,” she told Israeli Army Radio today.
An official Lebanese source told AFP, however, that Beirut was “not aware of any planned contact with the Israeli side, and we have not been informed of any through official channels”.
“The ceasefire requested by Lebanon with Israel is the natural starting point for direct negotiations between the two countries,” Aoun said in his statement.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported clashes in Bint Jbeil, a town five kilometres from the border where Hezbollah fighters are battling the Israeli army.
This was followed, NNA reported, by an Israeli strike that destroyed a key bridge and another that hit the road linking Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus.
