Amb Huckabee to join US Israel-Lebanon talks as Beirut affirms it won’t be intimidated by Hezbollah

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will join the American delegation in the next round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington, D.C., CNN reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed U.S. State Department official.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and State Department Counselor Michael Needham are also expected to take part in the discussions.

The upcoming meeting follows an initial round of talks held on April 14. After that session, the State Department said the parties held “productive discussions” and agreed to meet again.

U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio will reportedly lead Washington’s efforts to extend the 10-day Israel-Lebanon ceasefire and push for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The State Department will host the next round of talks on Thursday between Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter and his Lebanese counterpart Nada Hamadeh Moawad.

While Israelis, especially residents in northern border communities, support peace with Lebanon, many oppose a ceasefire as long as Hezbollah continues to threaten Israeli civilian communities. Like its patron, the ayatollah regime in Tehran, Hezbollah openly seeks Israel’s destruction.

The Lebanese government outlawed Hezbollah’s military activities after the terror group attacked Israel in early March. The Lebanese presidency announced that “all Hezbollah security and military activities, considering them illegal, and obligates Hezbollah to surrender its weapons to the Lebanese state and confine its activities to the political sphere within constitutional and legal frameworks.”

The Lebanese government and much of the Lebanese population are reportedly opposed to the war with Israel and have blamed Hezbollah leaders for prioritizing the Iranian regime’s interests over Lebanon’s national security.

“We will not allow the country to be dragged into new adventures, and we will take all necessary measures to apprehend the perpetrators and protect the Lebanese people,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said at the time in a barely veiled reference to Hezbollah.

The U.S.-brokered ceasefire of December 2024 stipulates that Hezbollah must disarm and relinquish its military ambitions. However, Hezbollah has so far refused to disarm, and the Lebanese state has reportedly been unable to enforce its authority across Lebanese territory.

As part of the upcoming talks, the Lebanese government will seek the withdrawal of Israeli forces currently stationed inside southern Lebanon. Israel has emphasized that it has no territorial claims in Lebanon and it only seeks to protect its own northern border communities from Hezbollah’s repeated aggression.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar emphasized ahead of the Washington talks that there are “serious disagreements” between Israel and Lebanon.

“We made a historic decision to negotiate directly with Lebanon after more than 40 years,” Sa’ar stated on Wednesday during an Independence Day reception for foreign diplomats in Jerusalem.

“Unfortunately, Lebanon is a failed state. A state that is de facto under Iranian occupation through Hezbollah. But this also leads to a conclusion: Hezbollah is a common enemy of Israel and Lebanon,” Sa’ar said. “Just as it threatens Israel’s security, it harms Lebanon’s sovereignty and threatens its future.”

During a visit to Paris on Tuesday, Prime Minister Salam announced that Lebanon supports continued talks with Israel and asked for support from international partners. Salam clarified that Lebanon does not seek confrontation with Hezbollah but stressed it “will not allow intimidation.”

A senior Hezbollah official recently warned Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that he would lose his position if he agreed to hold peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.