JERUSALEM(RAHNUMA): Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said his country is seeking “peace and normalization” with Lebanon, ahead of talks between officials from both nations in Washington on Tuesday.
“We want to reach peace and normalization with the state of Lebanon… Israel and Lebanon don’t have any major disputes between them. The problem is Hezbollah,” Saar said at a press conference with visiting Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Petr Macinka.
Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war after Hezbollah attacked Israel, sparking an Israeli ground invasion and airstrikes — including an extremely heavy attack on Beirut on April 8.
The fighting has killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon and displaced over one million.
The Washington meeting — the first such talks since 1993 — will be mediated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and include the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States.
Saar said Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 “against the will of the Lebanese government.”
“The problem for Israel’s security is the problem for Lebanon’s sovereignty,” Saar said.
“It’s Hezbollah, it’s the same problem. And this problem needs to be addressed in order to move to a different phase.”
While Lebanon has called for a ceasefire, Israel has rejected that proposal and continues to insist on the disarmament of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem has urged Lebanon to cancel the talks in Washington, reiterating his group’s rejection of direct negotiations with the neighboring country.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said that overnight clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militants left 10 soldiers wounded in the strategically significant southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, which Israeli forces have encircled.
The escalation of fighting in the town comes as Israeli and Lebanese officials are scheduled to hold talks in Washington later on Tuesday.
According to the military, Israeli troops have now fully surrounded the town, marking a notable advance in their ongoing ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
Fighting in recent days has involved close-quarters, “face-to-face” engagements between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters, the military said.
“Overnight, three IDF soldiers were severely injured, and an additional soldier was moderately injured in a close-quarters encounter” in Bint Jbeil, it said.
“In the incident, six additional soldiers were lightly injured,” the military added.
On Monday, the military said its forces killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters in and around the town over the past few days.
Just five kilometers (three miles) from the Israeli border, Bint Jbeil has long been both a symbolic and strategic flashpoint in confrontations between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
It was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting during the 2006 war, when Hezbollah’s resistance there became central to the group’s narrative of defiance.
It was from the stadium in Bint Jbeil in 2000 that the group’s former chief Hassan Nasrallah delivered his “Liberation” speech following Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
