Updated April 14, 2026 at 6:16 PM EDT
BEIRUT, TEL AVIV and WASHINGTON — Lebanon and Israel on Tuesday held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades in Washington, trying to end the conflict between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
Hosted by the State Department, the rare meeting brought together the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials.
No major breakthrough was expected to result from the meeting. But Rubio said it would "outline the framework upon which a permanent and lasting peace can be developed."
He said the talks were about "bringing a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah's influence in this part of the world."
These talks came after six weeks of fighting between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon, where more than 2,100 people have been killed by Israeli strikes, according to Lebanese health officials. Hezbollah has also fired at Israel, killing at least 12 soldiers and two civilians, according to Israeli authorities. Israel invaded southern Lebanon, destroying 40,000 homes, according to Lebanese officials, and carrying out strikes killing Hezbollah operatives and civilians.
The meeting also comes amid a shaky two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. The continued dispute over whether the truce extended to Israel's attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon has undermined the tenuous agreement.
The sides agreed to launch negotiations
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter described Tuesday's meeting as a "wonderful exchange" for over two hours.
"We are both united in liberating Lebanon from an occupation power dominated by Iran called Hezbollah," he said.
He said the fact that the talks took place at all was a victory because Hezbollah urged the Lebanese government not to take part.
"These negotiations are futile," Hezbollah's leader, Naim Qassem, said in a televised speech on Monday. "No one has the right to take Lebanon down this path without internal consensus among its components — and this has not happened."
In a statement after the talks, the State Department said Israel expressed support for disarming militant groups and their infrastructure in Lebanon, and a commitment to working with Lebanon's government on security between the two countries.
Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and "concrete measures to address and alleviate the severe humanitarian crisis that the country continues to endure as a result of the ongoing conflict," the statement said.
"All sides agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue," it said.
Leiter said the next talks will be in a few weeks in Washington.
Fighting continues
Just days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel. Israel ramped up its fight against Hezbollah, launching airstrikes and a invasion. The assault displaced more than 1 million people in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.
Last week — the day the U.S.-Iran ceasefire began — Israel launched its biggest assault since the start of renewed war with Hezbollah. More than 350 who were killed in a single day, many in central Beirut, after Israel struck 100 times in 10 minutes, according to Lebanese authorities.
Hezbollah, which said it believed the ceasefire would include Lebanon, resumed firing rockets into northern Israel and fighting Israel's invasion.
President Trump said he had a phone call Wednesday with Netanyahu urging him to scale down Israeli attacks in Lebanon, as the U.S. seeks an agreement with Iran. Israel curbed attacks in the capital Beirut but has continued its offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where more than 100 people have been killed by Israel in recent days, according to Lebanese officials.
Israel is preparing for a long-term occupation of southern Lebanon to keep Hezbollah away from Israel's border, according to an official briefed on Israel's strategy. The official spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz both joined invading troops inside Lebanon over the weekend, where Katz said Israel would remove the threat "just as we did in Gaza," including demolishing homes so they can't become "terror outposts."
Even as the talks were set to begin in D.C., Israel and Hezbollah continued to trade fire into Tuesday. Israeli airstrikes hit border villages that Israel says it is seizing from Lebanon to create what it calls a "security zone" to prevent Hezbollah from firing cross-border rockets.
Shay Har-Zvi, a former Israeli military and government strategist, said Israel's troops would likely remain in a new buffer zone in southern Lebanon in the coming weeks and months to prevent Hezbollah from firing into northern Israel.
"It's going to take some time. No doubt about it. But this is the only way that can maybe reduce the power of Hezbollah and bring some quiet, not only to Israel, but also to Lebanon," Har-Zvi said.
The first diplomatic talks since 1993
Lebanon and Israel have no formal relations.
The State Department said Tuesday's event was "the first major high-level engagement" between them since 1993. That year, the U.S. brokered a ceasefire via phone calls with Israel, Syria and Lebanon and indirect contacts with Iran.
Israel has said it will not agree to any deal unless there's a tangible plan with the Lebanese government for disarming Hezbollah.
But what influence the Lebanese government has on Hezbollah remains unclear. Hezbollah is a major political party and holds seats in the Lebanese parliament. It is also a militia that operates largely independently of the Lebanese government and receives funding and direction from Iran.
Israel has long demanded that Hezbollah give up its weapons. But the group has continued to stockpile arms.
Lebanese citizens also deeply mistrust Israel's intentions. During a ceasefire agreed to in 2024 by Israel and Lebanon, which was in place until March 2 of this year, U.N. peacekeepers recorded more than 10,000 violations of that agreement, and nearly all of them were from Israel.
The expectations for the talks were low in Beirut on Tuesday.
"There will never be peace between Israel and Lebanon," said Ali Abboud, a 37-year-old who was standing by the rubble of an apartment building in the center of the city, waiting to see if his sister's remains would be found. "I thought that before this happened, and now I feel it even stronger."
Jawad Rizkallah contributed to this report from Beirut.
Copyright 2026 NPR
