Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial for corruption charges at the Tel Aviv District Court, on March 12, 2025. (Credit: Yair Sagi/AFP)
While the Israeli government announced Tuesday evening, to general surprise, unprecedented negotiations with Lebanon on the border demarcation between the two countries and the release of prisoners, a senior Israeli official stated Wednesday to the Times of Israel that the objective of these talks was to "achieve normalization" between the two countries.
The Tuesday meeting, which resulted in an agreement to create "three working groups" – related to the five points controlled by Israel in southern Lebanon, the Blue Line demarcation and the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel – included Israeli military officials and their American, French and Lebanese counterparts, specified this senior Israeli official.
The official further explained that a future meeting will be held between political bodies, this time Israeli and Lebanese.
"This means official Israeli diplomacy within Lebanon," he added, which would constitute a factor of normalization between the two states.
'The diplomatic way'
The senior Israeli official hoped that President Joseph Aoun would present normalization to the Lebanese as a victory for "the diplomatic way," the newspaper reports.
In Lebanon, the leader of the Kataeb party welcomed this development in the negotiations.
"From the cease-fire agreement to the Israeli withdrawal, through the repatriation of prisoners and negotiations on border demarcation, so many proofs of the state's ability to defend the national interest without depending on anyone," Samy Gemayel wrote on X Wednesday. "All my support to President Joseph Aoun and Lebanese diplomacy for their efforts to consolidate sovereignty and limit the carrying of arms to the state and military and security institutions," referring to Hezbollah's military arsenal, which this party seeks to maintain.
These developments come as Israel continues to conduct daily operations in the border area. Wednesday, farmers were targeted by gunfire in the Wazzani region, with no injuries reported, while a Merkava tank advanced toward Ramieh, according to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south. Drones were also flying over several regions of the country, including Hermel, the south and Beirut and its southern suburbs.
On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon Tarek Mitri denied in an interview with the American Arabic-language channel al-Hura that the Lebanese government "received any official request to sign a peace agreement with Israel."
A day earlier, Massaad Boulos, Donald Trump's Lebanese-American adviser for Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs, met at his home in Washington with an Israeli official in charge of colonization in the occupied West Bank, with whom he discussed the hope of "concrete results" regarding a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
Rumors of normalization between the two states have been circulating since Progressive Socialist Party MP Wael Bou Faour mentioned, three weeks ago, American pressures on Lebanese officials to push for "reconciliation" with Israel.
He then said he "would not be surprised if reconciliation with Israel was imposed on Lebanon," which sparked a mixed reaction in Lebanon, with some enthusiastic and, more often, others apprehensive.