What Israeli and Lebanese officials are saying before Washington talks

The United States has announced that a new round of talks between Israel and Lebanon will be held in Washington, DC, from Tuesday to Thursday this week. The announcement came shortly after Israel and Hezbollah announced a renewed ceasefire in Lebanon, where ongoing attacks have threatened to derail the US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) to end the war . Iran, which backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has made a ceasefire in Lebanon a key condition in its ongoing negotiations with the US. Israel has occupied about one-fifth of Lebanon and continued near-daily attacks on southern Lebanon and Beirut since early March, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to the first US-Israeli attacks on Tehran on February 28, which killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several senior officials. More than 4,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, and more than one million have been displaced from their homes as Israeli forces have advanced northwards. Here is a recap of the statements that Israeli and Lebanese leaders have made in the lead-up to this meeting. (Al Jazeera) What have the US and Iran said about the Lebanon talks? On Monday, mediators Qatar and Pakistan said the US and Iran agreed on a new roadmap towards reaching a final deal following what they described as “encouraging progress” during the first day of high-level talks in Switzerland. …