Trump says Israel and Lebanon leaders to hold talks after first high-level

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that talks between Israel and Lebanon will begin Thursday, offering few details on the planned negotiations.

In a Truth Social post published just before midnight, Trump said he was “trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon.”

“It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years,” he added. Trump did not specify who would attend or where the talks would take place.

The announcement followed a trilateral meeting between U.S., Israeli and Lebanese officials on Tuesday, the first major high-level engagement between Israel and Lebanon since 1993. The three sides agreed to hold “productive discussions on steps toward launching direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.”

During the meeting, the U.S. called for talks to go beyond a 2024 agreement and work toward a comprehensive peace deal, adding that any agreement to cease hostilities must be reached between the two governments, brokered by the U.S., and not through separate channels.

In November 2024, Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire after a yearlong conflict between the Jewish state and the Iranian proxy. That conflict was triggered after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The 2024 ceasefire later unraveled when Hezbollah fired into Israel in March, dragging Lebanon into the Iran War, shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.