Foreign minister says talks continuing over Israel’s stated objectives of pushing Hezbollah away from Israeli border

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said on Monday that “certain progress” had been made on ceasefire talks in Lebanon, where Israel has been engaged in fighting Hezbollah for more than 13 months.

“We will be ready to be there if we know, first of all, that Hezbollah is not on our border, is north of the Litani River, and that Hezbollah will not be able to arm with new weapons systems,” Saar said. He added that diplomatic efforts were taking place through US mediation, but that the lack of enforcement mechanism in any future deal remained a stumbling block.

Israel’s stated objective in its ground invasion of south Lebanon was to enable the return of residents of north Israel, of which tens of thousands have been displaced since Hezbollah began firing rockets “in solidarity” with Hamas on 8 October 2023. Israel has said that Hezbollah would need to retreat north of the Litani, 18 miles from its northern border, to ensure the security of north Israel.