Donald Trump Extends Lebanon-Israel Ceasefire for Three Weeks Ahead of Talks With Aoun and Netanyahu

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he extended the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel for three weeks, coinciding with the start of the second round of direct talks between them at the White House.

The Al Jazeera report says American optimism centers on a trilateral meeting later that would include Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside Trump, while Lebanese officials ruled it out given the current on-the-ground situation.

Al Jazeera

Trump said the Oval Office meeting between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States, with participation of the American ambassadors to Lebanon and Israel, went as well as could be hoped, and he expressed hope the next meeting would be with Aoun and Netanyahu during the extended ceasefire period.

The report adds that Trump said the United States will support Lebanon directly to enable it to defend itself from Hezbollah, and it notes that President Aoun previously said Beirut’s demands would include extending the ceasefire, stopping the destruction of homes and attacks on civilians and houses of worship, and also on journalists and the medical and educational bodies.

Al Jazeera’s Beirut bureau chief Mazen Ibrahim described the developments as an American launch of a ball of fire of challenges into Lebanon, including how Lebanon handles Trump’s assertion of Israel’s right to defend itself through specific surgical operations.

A separate report says Fox News, citing a senior official at the U.S. State Department, argued that the only path to lasting peace is through direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.

The Al Jazeera account says Trump’s talk of a direct peace between Lebanon and Israel skips the promised negotiations track that was supposed to begin in Cyprus or any European capital with an official Lebanese delegation.

Al Jazeera

It also says Ibrahim argued that proposing a fixed timeline of three weeks for a meeting that would bring Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House would contradict previous statements by the Lebanese president denying the possibility of such a meeting at this time.

In the same Al Jazeera report, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, expressed hope that the Lebanese army would be able to implement and enforce the ceasefire, while also saying the extension of the ceasefire in Lebanon is not 100% guaranteed.

The report further states that the Wall Street Journal quoted officials that mediation between Lebanon and Israel is on a separate track from negotiations to end the war with Iran, and that linking the two files would amount to acknowledging Tehran’s influence over Lebanon’s sovereign affairs.

While Washington-backed talks are discussed, the yalibnan editorial board says events in southern Lebanon are moving in the opposite direction, pointing to the capture of Beaufort Ridge and the crossing of the Litani River as a significant escalation in Israel’s military campaign.

The editorial says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the seizure as a “dramatic change” in Israeli policy and vowed to deepen Israel’s hold over areas previously controlled by Hezbollah.

It argues that diplomats discuss the possibility of a new chapter between Lebanon and Israel, but military actions are creating new facts on the ground that risk making peace even more difficult to achieve.

The editorial board frames the fundamental question as whether occupation can deliver long-term security, recalling that Israel occupied southern Lebanon for nearly two decades and that the occupation did not bring lasting security.

It concludes that “No sovereign nation willingly signs a lasting peace agreement while under occupation,” and says the path forward requires two parallel commitments: Israel withdrawing to its internationally recognized border and respecting Lebanon’s sovereignty, with a peace agreement creating an opportunity for Lebanon to rebuild its institutions.