Israel and Lebanon leaders to hold talks in decades: Trump

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that talks between Israel and Lebanon will begin Thursday, offering few details on the planned negotiations.

In a Truth Social post published just before midnight, Trump said he was "trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon."

"It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years," he added. Trump did not specify who would attend or where the talks would take place.

The announcement followed a trilateral meeting between US, Israeli and Lebanese officials on Tuesday, the first major high-level engagement between Israel and Lebanon since 1993. The three sides agreed to hold "productive discussions on steps toward launching direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon."

During the meeting, the US called for talks to go beyond a 2024 agreement and work toward a comprehensive peace deal, adding that any agreement to cease hostilities must be reached between the two governments, brokered by the US, and not through separate channels.

In November 2024, Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire after a yearlong conflict between the Jewish state and the Iranian proxy. That conflict was triggered after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The 2024 ceasefire later unraveled when Hezbollah fired into Israel in March, dragging Lebanon into the Iran War, shortly after the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the weeks since, Tel Aviv launched multiple strikes against Iranian proxy Hezbollah — which has a stronghold in southern Lebanon.

Israel has since expanded its strikes beyond southern Lebanon to the capital, Beirut, displacing more than a million people.

The Qatar News Agency, citing the Lebanese health ministry, said that the death toll in the country stood at 2,164, with 7,061 wounded as of April 15.

The parallel campaign by Israel in neighboring Lebanon — alongside its strikes in Iran — had been a sticking point in peace negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

The speaker of Iran's parliament warned last Friday that negotiations to end the war cannot begin unless Israel halts attacks on Lebanon and unless the US releases Tehran's frozen assets.

The negotiations, held in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, ended without the two sides reaching a deal, although Trump told the New York Post that fresh US-Iran talks in Islamabad "could be happening over the next two days."

On April 7, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, though it was unclear whether it applied to Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said Israel would negotiate with Lebanon "as soon as possible."

However, key differences remain between the two sides.