US brokers between Israel, Lebanon and says progress with China
The United States on Thursday sought to extend a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon as President Donald Trump voiced optimism at China's efforts on Iran.
A ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel -- considered to still be in place despite hundreds of deaths in Israeli strikes -- ends on Sunday and violence again flared as the two governments met in Washington.
Israel has pounded Lebanon and invaded its south in response to retaliatory fire from Shia movement Hezbollah following Israel's killing of Iran's supreme leader at the start of the war on February 28.
Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors held the first of two days of talks at the State Department, with Israel bringing along military officers, diplomats said.
A Lebanese official told AFP that the country would seek "the consolidation of the ceasefire" and said: "The first thing is to put an end to the death and destruction."
The two sides last met on April 23 at the White House, where Trump announced a three-week ceasefire extension between the countries, which have technically been at war for decades.
Trump at the time made the bold prediction that during the three-week extension he would welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to Washington for a historic first summit between the countries.
The summit has not happened, with Aoun saying a security deal and an end to Israeli attacks were needed before such a landmark meeting.
Israel has vowed to keep pursuing attacks against Hezbollah. The Israeli military said Thursday it struck more than 65 more Hezbollah sites across Lebanon.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Israeli airstrikes on the south and east on Thursday, including on areas not mentioned in an earlier Israeli evacuation warning.
Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops in northern Israel with a drone. The Israeli military said several Israeli civilians were injured and evacuated for medical treatment.
Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar denounced the talks in Washington, calling them "free concessions" to Israel.
Israeli attacks since March 2 have killed more than 2,800 people in Lebanon, including at least 200 children, according to Lebanese authorities, a toll Hezbollah says includes its fighters.
- Trump courts Xi -
The Middle East war has roiled the global economy and impacted hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Iran, the patron of Hezbollah, has made a lasting ceasefire in Lebanon a condition for any agreement to end the wider war, further frustrating Trump by refusing his appeals for an accord on his terms.
Iran responded to the war by imposing control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passageway through which one-fifth of the world's oil once transited, and it has been loath to give up its leverage.
Trump discussed the issue on a state visit to China, which is the main international buyer of Iran's oil, which the United States has sought to ban worldwide through unilateral sanctions.
Trump, in an interview in Beijing, said that President Xi Jinping promised "strongly" to him that "he's not going to give military equipment" to Iran.
"He'd like to see the Hormuz Strait open, and said 'if I can be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help,'" Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Netanyahu has said that China has provided missile technology to Iran.
In a sign of China's clout with Tehran, the elite Revolutionary Guards said that its naval forces had allowed a number of Chinese ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since late Wednesday.
"It was ultimately concluded that a number of Chinese ships requested by this country would pass through this area after an agreement on Iran's strait management protocols," the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military, said in a statement.
- Disarmament push -
With Trump traveling, neither he nor Secretary of State Marco Rubio were present for the Lebanon talks, unlike during a previous two rounds.
The US mediators include the ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon -- respectively Mike Huckabee, an evangelical pastor and staunch supporter of Israel's regional ambitions, and Michel Issa, a Lebanese-born businessman and golf partner of Trump.
Lebanon has repeatedly called for Israel to withdraw its troops from the south and insists on extending state sovereignty over all its territory as part of a commitment last year to disarm Hezbollah.
Washington has endorsed Beirut's commitment to do so, while pressing it to take more action.
The United States believes "comprehensive peace is contingent on the full restoration of Lebanese state authority and the complete disarmament of Hezbollah," a State Department statement said ahead of the talks.
"These talks aim to break decisively from the failed approach of the past two decades, which allowed terrorist groups to entrench and enrich themselves, undermine the authority of the Lebanese state, and endanger Israel's northern border," it said.
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