Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that he would not speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even as he thanked Washington for its efforts to secure
a ceasefire.
The development, first reported by Lebanese media outlet LBCI, runs counter to US President Donald Trump’s claim that the leaders would speak for the first time in decades on Thursday. “It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow. Nice!” Trump wrote in the post published before midnight on Wednesday, Washington time.
It also casts doubt on Israeli Minister of Science and Technology Gila Gamliel’s statement that Netanyahu would hold talks with Aoun, marking the first direct conversation between the leaders of the two countries in more than 30 years.
“Today the Prime Minister will speak for the first time with the president of Lebanon after so many years of a complete disconnection in the dialogue between the two countries,” Gamliel, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, told Army Radio on Thursday morning.
Gamliel, who attended a cabinet meeting on Wednesday on negotiations with Lebanon, said the move would “hopefully ultimately lead to prosperity and flourishing” between the two countries.
Lebanon and Israel had earlier held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades on Tuesday in Washington, following more than a month of conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. The talks were held at the diplomat level.
Contact between Netanyahu and Aoun would be a milestone in ties between Lebanon and Israel – countries which have remained in a state of war since Israel was established in 1948. Hezbollah opposes contacts between Lebanon and Israel.
Lebanon was pulled into the ongoing war in West Asia on March 2 after the Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, attacked Israel, shortly after US-Israeli strikes targeted Iran.
Since then, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than a million, despite international calls for a ceasefire, and Israeli ground forces have invaded the country’s south.
