The United States hailed rare talks this week between Israel and Lebanon as a “historic milestone” that it hoped would bring lasting peace.
But the Trump administration placed little pressure on Israel to restrain its offensive in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, said the Trump administration had effectively engineered a negotiation process devoid of any Israeli concessions.
“This administration has shown no interest in countering or even limiting Israel’s plans,” he said.
The talks, held in Washington on Tuesday, were the first such meeting in decades and ended with an agreement to work toward more direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, a U.S. statement said.
The statement did not, however, call for a halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon as a condition for those negotiations, instead citing Israel’s “right to defend itself” from Hezbollah attacks. Nor did it urge Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory that it has invaded and signaled that it plans to occupy.
It was not immediately clear whether the talks had altered Israel’s stance on a cease-fire, which officials have previously refused even to discuss.
That has left Lebanon’s government facing talks unfolding on highly unequal terms.
Israel would enter such negotiations with overwhelming military superiority and pressing its advantage on the battlefield, while the Lebanese state is hobbled and exercises no direct control over Hezbollah.
For its part, Hezbollah has rejected talks with Israel, leaving Lebanese officials to negotiate over a conflict between two warring parties that are largely beyond their control.
Israel last month launched a sweeping offensive against Hezbollah after the group staged a rocket attack on Israel in solidarity with its patron, Iran. Hezbollah’s attack followed shortly after the United States and Israel opened their war against Iran.
Immediately after President Trump announced a cease-fire with Iran last week, Israel intensified its attacks on Lebanon, killing more than 300 people in a single day. Both Israel and the Trump administration said Lebanon was not covered in the truce.
After Iran threatened to withdraw from the cease-fire, Mr. Trump urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to scale back the onslaught.
Israel halted strikes on Beirut, but there has been little sign of a slowdown in its attacks on southern Lebanon.
For Lebanon’s government, negotiating with Israel while still under fire presents a fundamental challenge.
Even the prospect of talks with Israel is deeply fraught within Lebanon, exposing divisions in a country with no unified position on such an engagement. Hezbollah supporters have staged protests in Beirut against the negotiations in recent days, raising fears of even more instability at an already volatile moment.
Lebanese officials have nonetheless signaled openness to negotiations and, under mounting international pressure, reiterated pledges to disarm Hezbollah. But Lebanon is still shaped by the legacy of its bloody 15-year civil war, which ended in 1990, leaving leaders wary of anything that could kindle more internal conflict.
More than 2,100 people have been killed in Lebanon since the latest round of hostilities erupted in early March, according to the Lebanese authorities, with more than a million displaced — roughly a fifth of the population. At least 13 Israeli soldiers have also been killed, along with two civilians, according to the Israeli authorities.
Without parallel concessions from Israel to halt strikes that have inflicted widespread civilian casualties and destruction in Lebanon, the talks have added fuel to Hezbollah’s accusations that the Lebanese government is acquiescing to Israel and engaging in futile negotiations.
“They offered their hands to the enemy without receiving anything in exchange,” Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah lawmaker in the Lebanese Parliament, said in a television interview on Wednesday.
Lebanon’s government is left with few options and has little choice but to face the bitter dilemma it has long fought to stave off: confront Hezbollah and risk internal rupture or shrink from that fight and watch the war grind on.
“The Lebanese state is very much on the back foot” said Paul Salem, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
“There are no good short-term options,” he added.
Aaron Boxerman and Isabel Kershner reporting.
Euan Ward is a Times reporter covering Lebanon and Syria. He is based in Beirut.
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