BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and US Vice President JD Vance discussed a de-confliction mechanism for Lebanon on Monday, Aoun’s office said, as Vance said the move aimed to prevent spiralling Israel-Hezbollah violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nonetheless declared that Israeli forces had been granted “full freedom” to engage any threat encountered in southern Lebanon, reaffirming that troops would remain deployed in the region for as long as deemed necessary.
“My directive, and that of the minister of defense, to the IDF is clear and has not changed: Our fighters in southern Lebanon have full freedom of action to thwart any direct or developing threat to them or to the residents of the North,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“The IDF has no restrictions on this matter.”
After a first round of US-Iran talks in Switzerland on ending the Middle East war, mediators Pakistan and Qatar said on Monday that Tehran and Washington had agreed to set up a “de-confliction cell” with Lebanon “to ensure the adherence of the termination of military operations” there.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran, has repeatedly threatened to derail regional peace efforts.
Aoun received a call from Vance, US senior adviser Jared Kushner and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a statement from the Lebanese presidency said.
They discussed “the issue of consolidating the ceasefire in Lebanon, stopping the Israeli military escalation and steps that should be taken in this regard, including the possibility of forming a cell for this purpose,” the statement added.
Vance said Washington recognizes Aoun and Lebanon’s government as the country’s sole legitimate authority, adding that US contacts with Iran are aimed at encouraging Tehran to press Hezbollah to meet its commitments, not to give Iran a role in shaping Lebanon’s future.
Vance later told a press conference in Switzerland that the “de-confliction mechanism” was being set up to ensure “that when things happen, they don’t spiral into a broader escalation.”
“We do believe... that we can get to a place where Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty is protected, Israel’s security is protected,” he said.
“That’s going to require some coordination with the Lebanese armed forces, and also it’s going to require the Iranians to rein in Hezbollah,” Vance added.
‘We negotiate for ourselves’
After the talks in Switzerland, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X: “1st real test: Lebanon deconfliction cell.”
The negotiations came after Washington and Tehran last week signed a memorandum of understanding to end the broader Middle East war that includes Lebanon.
Israeli strikes and clashes with Hezbollah late last week threatened to derail the deal, but fighting in Lebanon has been paused since Saturday evening.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary general, on Monday said “yesterday marked the first day since the resumption of hostilities on March 2 in Lebanon, that peacekeepers from our peacekeeping force in Lebanon did not detect any trajectories or observe any interceptions.”
He said “this lack of activities has continued through this morning,” welcoming the “reduction of hostilities.”
Israel on Sunday said all war-related restrictions in its northern border areas were lifted from Monday morning.
Under US pressure, Lebanese officials began direct talks with Israel in April in Washington, and a fifth round of negotiations is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
The goal of talks will be “to end the cycle of violence for good,” and “advance a comprehensive peace and security agreement between the two countries,” a US State Department official told AFP on Monday.
“We are enabling Israel and Lebanon to negotiate as two sovereign states and to find a way to have peace and security,” the official said.
Lebanese authorities are seeking the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the country and to separate the negotiations from the US-Iran deal.
“We negotiate for ourselves, and we do not accept any other party doing so for us,” Aoun said later Monday.
“We welcome any assistance that comes from any country to end the war, particularly as the situation in the region is interconnected,” he added.
“But there is a big difference between trying to help us and interfering in our internal affairs,” he said, alluding to Iran, which through Hezbollah has long wielded significant political influence in Lebanon.
New Lebanon-Israel talks to begin, in shadow of US-Iran deal
Lebanon heads into a new round of talks with Israel on Tuesday in Washington, with Beirut determined to press ahead with direct negotiations even as they appear to be overshadowed by Iran’s decision to make Lebanon part of its negotiations with the United States.
Lebanese officials have insisted that face-to-face negotiations with Israel are the only way to secure an end to the war raging since March 2, when armed group Hezbollah fired at Israel in support of Iran and triggered Israeli air and ground attacks that have killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon. But four rounds of Lebanese-Israeli talks since April failed to produce a durable ceasefire. Instead, the longest lull in fighting came this week after Iran and the US agreed a memorandum of understanding that stipulated fighting would halt across all fronts, including Lebanon. That deal buoyed Iran-backed Hezbollah and dealt a blow to the Lebanese state, whose leaders including President Joseph Aoun had repeatedly warned that Tehran cannot negotiate on Lebanon’s behalf.
A Lebanese official and two foreign officials working on Lebanon told Reuters the Iran-US deal had pulled the rug out from the Lebanese state, leaving it in its weakest position yet and throwing into question the utility of its talks with Israel this week.
The Lebanese official was skeptical that any tangible progress would come out of the negotiations, which are set to last for three days.
“There remains a fundamental problem of trust between us and the Israelis in these talks. We cannot fulfill their demands, and they reject all of ours,” the official said.
Lebanon to seek Israeli withdrawal timeline
Lebanon has said that one of its key goals in the talks would be securing an Israeli military withdrawal, but top Israeli officials have said that troops would remain in southern Lebanon indefinitely.
The Lebanese official said that Beirut would demand Israel present a “reasonable” timetable for its withdrawal at the talks.
“This is the only chance we have to generate momentum in these talks, and in this tug-of-war with Iran,” the official said.
Israel, meanwhile, sees the purpose of the upcoming talks as “disarming Hezbollah and achieving a genuine peace agreement” with Lebanon, according to a briefing by Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer on the eve of the new negotiations.
Mencer said the only impediment to a deal with Lebanon was Hezbollah, “which is why we believe that they should be disarmed and dismantled.”
The Lebanese government has moved carefully since 2025 to disarm Hezbollah without confronting the group directly, fearing it would spark a civil conflict.
Hezbollah has rejected disarming in full and has called on the government to withdraw from its direct talks with Israel.
Hezbollah bets on Iran as negotiator
Karim Safieddine, a fellow at the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told Reuters there was a risk that Israel could assume an even more hard-line position in the Washington talks given its officials’ anger over the US-Iran deal.
While that deal had brought relative calm to Lebanon, there was “no structural change” in the Lebanese and Israeli positions that indicated progress could be made at the negotiating table, Safieddine said. Aoun first proposed direct talks in March but they only began in mid-April, after the US announced a ceasefire to enable a diplomatic process that Washington said would ultimately lead to a peace deal.
Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs then largely stopped, but fierce fighting continued in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops pushed deeper into Lebanese villages.
The US announced a new ceasefire initiative in early June again as part of the Lebanese-Israeli talks, but it was contingent on Hezbollah halting fire and was rejected by the group. Hezbollah expects Iran to demand an Israeli withdrawal as it pursues talks with the US on a final deal, and says the Lebanese government should bet on that track instead of its direct negotiations.
