Israel and Lebanon have agreed to launch negotiations on a dispute over the land border between them, officials on Tuesday provided opportunities to resolve decades of tensions and disagreements that have contributed to the conflict.
In a statement, President Trump’s Deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortags said the US is linking Israel and Lebanon to discuss border boundaries. She said it will also focus on the five-person military pre-post base of Lebanon’s Israeli forces and the future of Lebanese prisoners still held in Israel after last year’s ceasefire contracts significantly halted most cross-border wars.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said there is an agreement to establish a working group to discuss three topics. Speaking about sensitive diplomacy on the terms of anonymity, Lebanese officials confirmed that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to engage in negotiations on the border boundary.
It was not clear which format officials would actually move on or what formats they were actually planning. Israel and Lebanon have no direct, formal diplomatic relations.
But if Israel and Lebanon succeed in achieving a border agreement, analysts said it undermines debate by Hezbollah, an extremist group that is Lebanon’s influential force to maintain its arms. Hezbollah has long argued that he is fighting what he described as Israel’s occupation of Lebanon.
“If there is a transaction at the border, the Hezbollah alibi will disappear,” said Mohanad Hej Ali, a senior fellow at Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. “It pulls the rug from under them.”
The day after Hamas launched a surprising attack on Southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets and mortar into northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinian extremist groups.
The extreme attacks across Israel’s Lebanon border continued for several months before Israel made a massive escalation against Hezbollah, killing top leaders, targeting weapons caches, and began ground invasion into Lebanon.
In late November, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement, conditioned by the end of January, to hand over control over the Lebanese forces of Israel and Southern Lebanon.
However, Israel still controls five points in southern Lebanon. Israeli officials argue that Hezbollah is not on the side of the agreement and poses no threat to Israelis in northern Israel, but extremist groups accused him of violating the November agreement by not withdrawing.
“All involved are continuing to commit to implementing the ceasefire agreement and fully implementing all of its terms,” Ortagus said.
Two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to communicate with the media said they hoped the consultation would take place soon, without mentioning a specific time frame.
One US authorities said there are 13 specific locations where Israel and Lebanon have disagreements at the border.
In 2022, Israel and Lebanon agreed to portray a maritime border between the two countries. The deal settled the location of both countries’ exclusive economic zones in the Eastern Mediterranean, bounding the location where each has only right to extract resources.
There was then talk of US officials about the start of negotiations on land borders. This is a plan envisaged by Amos Hochstein, the top envoy of the Biden administration. However, the war in Gaza put those plans on hold.
Announcements on future border talks on Tuesday came after a meeting of US, Israel, Lebanon, France and the United Nations officials on the implementation of the ceasefire.
After that meeting, the office of Lebanon’s newly elected president, Joseph Aung, said Israel had released four Lebanese citizens who had detained during the war last year. Israel said on Wednesday it would release its fifth Lebanese citizen.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said Israel has agreed to release five Lebanese detainees as “gestures” to Aoun.
The number of people detained by Israel in the latest conflict in Lebanon is thought to be quite low, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions about the number remaining in Israeli custody.
Aaron Boxerman and Euan Ward contributed to this article with a report.
