The US will host the third round of ambassador-level talks between representatives from Israel and Lebanon on May 14 and 15, a State Department official and an Israeli official confirmed to The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

Joining diplomats from each side will, for the first time, be military representatives, an Israeli official said, adding that the sides would discuss more concrete measures that can be taken to disarm Hezbollah.

While the US has hoped for more senior-level engagement between the two countries, Beirut has bucked US pressure to have Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Aoun said Monday that such a meeting would only be appropriate after the sides reach a security agreement and after Israel halts its strikes in Lebanon.

During the previous two meetings last month — the first of their kind in decades — Israeli and Lebanese representatives discussed a framework for an eventual peace deal that would see Israel withdraw from Lebanon, an empowered Lebanon disarm Hezbollah, and Jerusalem and Beirut normalize relations.

Beirut agreed to the meetings, hoping they would lead to a halt of Israeli fire in Lebanon. Two days after their first sit-down on April 14, the US announced such a ceasefire.

The second meeting — attended by US President Donald Trump — on April 23 saw the US announce a three-week extension of that truce.

The ceasefire has not been felt in southern Lebanon, where Israel carries out daily strikes against what it says are Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure, and the Iran-backed terror group targets Israeli troops that have........

© The Times of Israel