The Albany Gazette - Lebanon says Israel talks set for Tuesday in US

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has repeatedly expressed readiness for direct talks with Israel since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran, sparking massive Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.

After a ceasefire was announced between the United States and Iran this week, Washington and Tehran have been at odds over whether it also applies to Lebanon, as Israel has kept up heavy strikes on the country and Hezbollah has responded with its own attacks.

A statement from Aoun's office said that a first telephone call was held on Friday between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington and the US ambassador to Lebanon, who was also in the American city.

"During the call, it was agreed to hold the first meeting next Tuesday at the State Department to discuss declaring a ceasefire and the start date for negotiations between Lebanon and Israel under US auspices," the presidency statement said.

A Lebanese government official told AFP on Thursday that Lebanon wants a ceasefire before starting any negotiations with Israel.

Earlier Friday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem urged the Lebanese government to stop giving "free concessions" to Israel and vowed that "the resistance will continue until the last breath".

Hezbollah has rejected direct talks between the two countries, instead calling for Israel's army to withdraw from Lebanon.

- Security forces dead -

Lebanese authorities say the weeks of hostilities have killed more than 1,950 people, while the provisional toll of massive Israeli strikes across the country on Wednesday alone has risen to 357 dead.

Israel's military said it "eliminated more than 180 militants" from Hezbollah in Wednesday's strikes, which came hours after the US-Iran ceasefire was announced, adding that "the count is still ongoing".

It also said it had "dismantled" more than 4,300 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon and killed "more than 1,400" Hezbollah fighters since the war erupted.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes on south Lebanon on Friday, including saying that "enemy warplanes launched a series of heavy strikes" on Nabatiyeh, hitting a State Security office near the government headquarters in the city.

An AFP photographer saw extensive damage and a fire still raging at the site, where State Security said 13 of its personnel were killed.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the "painful loss only strengthens our determination to achieve a ceasefire that will protect Lebanon and our people in the south".

Aoun urged the international community to "assume its responsibilities in putting an end to the repeated Israeli aggressions".

David Wood, senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "clearly agreed to negotiate with Lebanon at this moment under pressure from the United States, Israel's key ally".

- Beirut threat -

Hezbollah also claimed dozens of attacks on Israeli targets, including cross-border rocket barrages which it said came in retaliation for the Nabatiyeh strikes, and a missile attack on a naval base in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, far from the border.

On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military issued a warning of incoming strikes for large, densely populated areas of southern Beirut, but so far had not carried out the threat.

A Western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity that "there is ongoing diplomatic pressure... to prevent renewed Israeli airstrikes on Beirut after 'Black Wednesday'".

Israel's warning on Thursday included areas home to major hospitals and the road to the country's only international airport.

But Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny has said he had "received assurances" from foreign diplomats that the facility and the road there would be spared.

Mohammad Zaatari, director of the country's largest public medical facility, Rafic Hariri Hospital, told AFP: "We have received assurances, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross that the hospital would not be targeted."

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(T.Brown--TAG)