Mail Wake

“It was a great honor to participate in this historic meeting! With his usual emphasis, Donald Trump praised Thursday on his Truth Social network the discussions between Israeli and Lebanese delegations, ensuring that they were ‘going very well,’ and then announced a three-week extension of the ceasefire in Lebanon.

“This meeting marked the second round of high-level negotiations between the two countries since last week, while the initial ten-day ceasefire, which came into effect last Friday, was set to expire on the evening of April 26,” as reported by The Daily Telegraph.

“In the same message, the American president promised to ‘work with Lebanon to help protect it from Hezbollah,’ and expressed his wishes for a meeting at the White House, ‘in the near future,’ between the Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

“At the end of the discussions, Donald Trump affirmed from the Oval Office that there was a ‘very good chance’ of reaching a peace agreement between the two countries this year.

“The presence of the American president, who attended part of the meeting aiming to pave the way for direct negotiations between Beirut and Tel Aviv, falls within the framework of his personal interest in the Lebanese issue,” according to L’Orient-Le Jour.

“For the Lebanese newspaper, the White House tenant is actively seeking to achieve a result in Lebanon, ‘even if it is not a peace agreement, but rather a security agreement ending the state of war,’ as the two countries have been technically at war since 1948.

“The participants in the discussions also ‘displayed an optimistic tone’ at the end of the meeting, noted Middle East Eye. Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, claimed that Israel and Lebanon had ‘never been closer than they are today,’ while his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Mouawad, thanked Donald Trump for presiding over ‘this historic moment.’

“Reduced but continuous attacks: These peace talks remain ‘extremely fragile,’ observes The Washington Post, as ‘the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has only been superficially respected, with continuous — although reduced — attacks from Israel and Hezbollah.’

“The American newspaper also notes that ‘Israel is at war with Hezbollah — supported by Iran — and not against Lebanon. And if the holding of direct talks between the two neighboring countries — a first in decades — has a historical significance, they owe their existence to the war between the United States and Iran.’

“Furthermore, ‘their chances of success are partly linked to separate and laborious ceasefire negotiations between Washington and Tehran,’ emphasizes the newspaper of the American capital.

“This view is shared by Axios, which states that ‘the United States wishes to extend the ceasefire in Lebanon for two reasons: to advance direct peace talks between Israel and Lebanon, and to prevent a resumption of fighting’, which could ‘compromise efforts to reach an agreement with Iran.’

“However, for Rami Khouri, professor of public policy at the American University of Beirut, the talks on a possible peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon are fraught with ‘contradictions,’ ‘weaknesses,’ and ‘vulnerabilities.’

“Interviewed by Al-Jazeera, he believes that it will be ‘difficult’ to enforce the three-week extension of the ceasefire because ‘two of the most important actors, Hezbollah and Iran,’ are not involved. ‘Hezbollah and Iran should be present at the negotiating table, but this will not happen,’ he laments.

“He judges that ‘the Israelis do not want a formal peace between a Lebanon and an Israel enjoying equal sovereign rights. Israel aspires to a peace similar to the extended peace in Gaza,’

“In addition, Hussein Ibish, a researcher at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, also writes in The Atlantic that the ceasefire ‘does not address any of the fundamental issues.’

“It’s disappointing because the prospects for a sustainable solution in Lebanon are more favorable than ever — provided that Israel finally considers the Lebanese government as the indispensable partner it could be,” he points out.”