Netanyahu Orders Direct Talks With Lebanon To Disarm Hezbollah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered his cabinet to begin direct negotiations with Lebanon, stressing that the talks are aimed at getting the Lebanese government to disarm Iran-backed Shia militia, Hezbollah that has engaged Israel in a bloody confrontation over the years.

The negotiations will focus on “disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon,” Netanyahu said even as Iran has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire brokered by Pakistan by attacking Lebanon on Wednesday.

In a statement posted on X in Hebrew, the Israeli leader requested this to his cabinet yesterday, in light of “repeated calls” from Lebanon to open direct negotiations.

Netanyahu earlier said Israel will strike Hezbollah “wherever necessary” as the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for parts of Beirut as reports by Lebanon’s health ministry said 203 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in Wednesday’s strikes.

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, earlier said ‘only solution’ was ceasefire followed by direct talks.

In a statement posted on X, he said the “only solution” is a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, followed by “direct negotiations” between them.

Aoun also said his country’s security forces have been “carrying out their work fully to enforce security, despite the “difficult circumstances they are facing.”

Israel and the United States have excluded Lebanon from the two- week Islamabad talks aimed at securing an end to the raging war that the US and Israel started against Iran on February 28, which led to the death of Iran’s Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei and his top generals.