In a video statement Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible,” positioning the talks as a way to disarm Hezbollah militants and establish relations between the neighbors. Netanyahu also said Israel would keep striking Hezbollah until security is restored in northern Israel, maintaining a posture of continued pressure even as negotiations loom.
The prospect of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon appeared to build support for the broader, tentative ceasefire tied to the Iran war, which the AP described as staggered under multiple strains. Those strains include Israel’s bombardment of Beirut, Iran’s stated role in maintaining leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, and uncertainty about whether ceasefire terms could be implemented in practice.
U.S. officials and a person familiar with the plans told the Associated Press that Israel-Lebanon negotiations were expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington, on a track involving U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and American diplomatic channels. The talks were expected to be led on the U.S. side by Ambassador Michel Issa and on the Israeli side by Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, according to that person, while it was not immediately clear who would represent Lebanon.
Later Thursday, however, Trump publicly challenged the effectiveness of the ceasefire in a message on his social media platform. Trump wrote, “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” adding, “That is not the agreement we have!” He pointed to what he described as a trickle of ships passing through the crucial waterway.
While the Israel-Lebanon dialogue was being discussed in Washington, Kuwait escalated pressure on the Iran war ceasefire by accusing Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting it on Thursday. Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry accused Iran and its proxies despite the ceasefire, and Saudi Arabia’s state-run Saudi Press Agency, quoting an anonymous official, said recent attacks damaged a key pipeline in the kingdom.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard denied launching attacks on Persian Gulf states after Kuwait’s announcement, according to the Associated Press report. The dispute adds to the atmosphere of contest over whether the ceasefire is being respected, ahead of planned U.S.-Iran talks that are expected to start over the weekend.
The push for negotiations also unfolded alongside intensified military activity. The report said Lebanon’s health ministry put the toll from Wednesday’s Israeli strikes on central Beirut and other areas at more than 300 killed and more than 1,100 wounded, with Israel saying it targeted Hezbollah in joining the war in support of Iran. Early Friday, Israel’s military said it struck about 10 launchers in Lebanon that fired rockets toward northern Israel on Thursday.
Israel also said Thursday that it killed Ali Yusuf Harshi, described as an aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, and there was no immediate Hezbollah comment. At the same time, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned in a social media post that continued Israeli attacks on Hezbollah would bring “explicit costs and STRONG responses,” and he has been discussed as a possible negotiator for meetings involving U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
On the diplomatic track toward Strait of Hormuz enforcement, the AP reported that Iran and its proxies and the United States continued to exchange pressure signals as well. In parallel reporting, semiofficial Iranian news agencies suggested forces had mined the Strait of Hormuz, and a tanker attempted a route ordered by the Revolutionary Guard before turning around early Friday, based on ship-tracking data cited by the AP.
A separate issue facing the ceasefire is the future of Iran’s enriched uranium, which both the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate during the war but which Iran says is protected under its rights. The Associated Press report said Iran’s chief nuclear agency official Mohammad Eslami said Thursday that protecting Tehran’s right to enrich uranium is “necessary” for any ceasefire talks, while Trump said earlier that the United States would work with Iran to remove uranium buried in last year’s U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, though Tehran did not confirm that.
In the background, Britain’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said in an interview with Sky News that the U.S.-Israel-Iran war ceasefire must stick and the Strait of Hormuz must reopen. As negotiations begin to take shape for Israel and Lebanon in Washington, the AP report underscored that getting agreement could be difficult given long hostilities, Hezbollah’s continued presence, and longstanding disagreements over the shared land border.