 "US Military personnel take away Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), removed from a US Air Force B-1 Lancer bomber at RAF Fairford in south-west England on March 15, 2026.- AFP")
Israel said on Sunday that no direct talks were planned with Lebanon to end the war, a day after a Lebanese official said Beirut was preparing a delegation to negotiate with Israel.
Asked whether Israel was set to hold such talks, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said: “No.”
On Saturday, a Lebanese official told AFP that preparations were underway for potential negotiations with Israel, but that Beirut was waiting for an “Israeli commitment to a truce”.
Lebanon was sucked into the war in the West Asia on March 2 when Hezbollah opened fire at Israel, saying it aimed to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader. Israel has responded with an offensive that has killed more than 800 people in Lebanon and forced more than 800,000 from their homes.
Aoun has expressed the state’s willingness for direct talks with Israel, seeking to secure an end to the war.
The Lebanese state’s readiness for talks with Israel has come at a time of sharpening tensions within Lebanon over Hezbollah’s status as an armed group. The Beirut government last week banned Hezbollah’s military activities. The group rejected the move and fought on, firing hundreds of rockets at Israel.
An Israeli official told Reuters on Friday that the campaign against Hezbollah would likely be intensified and continue even after strikes on Iran die down.
Lebanon and Israel have formally been in a state of war since Israel’s establishment in 1948. Critics have often described the heavily armed Hezbollah as a state within the state since Iran’s Revolutionary Guards formed it in 1982.
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View AllWith inputs from agencies