The US has announced a new round of Israeli-Lebanon talks in Washington next week | Story

The talks come as Hezbollah, Israel says a new ceasefire has been reached following a US-Iran ceasefire.

The US State Department has said that new talks between Israel and Lebanon will be held in Washington, DC, next week.

The statement on Friday came shortly after Israel and Hezbollah announced a further ceasefire in Lebanon, where fighting threatens to derail the US-Iran ceasefire agreement (MoU).

The State Department said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday and “stressed that dialogue between Lebanon and Israel represents the only way to rebuild, restore the economy, and end the frequent violence”.

The two discussed the upcoming talks on June 23 and 25, “where the two governments will move forward for lasting peace”.

Israel and Lebanon held their first talks in April, the first time the two countries have met since 1993.

After the meeting and the negotiations that followed in June, Israel and Lebanon declared a ceasefire.

However, the talks did not include Hezbollah, which is hindering any progress.

Hezbollah and Israel have continued to exchange violence in recent months. In the latest attack, Israeli forces have killed at least 47 people in southern Lebanon since midnight.

Following a cease-fire agreement reached in November 2024, the Lebanese government has been seeking to disarm Hezbollah as part of a US-backed roadblock.

The Lebanese government has also forced Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon. However, the terms of the agreement reached in June asked Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon, but did not ask Israel to withdraw completely.

The Memorandum of Understanding of the US-Iran to end the US-Israel war with Iran, meanwhile, is committed to “ensuring the integrity and security of Lebanon”.

The ongoing conflict has continued to undermine the MoU agreement, prompting a rare criticism of Israel from US President Donald Trump.

Speaking earlier, Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, accused Israel of seeking “endless war”.