WASHINGTON, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Israel and Lebanon will hold a third round of direct talks in Washington next week amid an extended fragile ceasefire, U.S. State Department officials said Thursday.
The two countries' ambassadors to the United States will meet face to face next Thursday and Friday as part of U.S.-brokered efforts for a durable ceasefire and a potential peace deal between them, said the U.S. officials.
The United States helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon last month, easing weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire took effect on April 8.
The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, however, has come under mounting strain. Israel on Wednesday evening launched its first airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs since the truce took effect in mid-April, Lebanon's TV channel al-Jadeed reported. Hezbollah claimed retaliatory attacks on Israeli military vehicles and troop gatherings.
Israel and Lebanon have no formal diplomatic relations, and Hezbollah has long been viewed by Israel as a "proxy" of Iran. The negotiating party with Israel is the Lebanese government, not Hezbollah.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, Israeli strikes between March 2 and May 6 have killed 2,715 people and injured 8,353 others in the country. ■
