Rubio hopes for joint statement on second day of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel in Washington

BEIRUT — Lebanese and Israeli diplomats met Wednesday in Washington for another round of negotiations, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing hope that the talks would produce a "plan of action" for security in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it targeted soldiers in northern Israel, its first such claim since Monday night.

“For the second consecutive day, and for the first time in many, many years, the leaders of the legitimate government of Lebanon and leaders from the government of Israel are seated at the State Department for the second day in a row, and hopefully today will produce a joint statement and an action plan on a track for security in that country, independent from Hezbollah, independent from nefarious influence,” Rubio said as he testified before Congress.

He said similar meetings had taken place last week at the Pentagon at a military level and told to U.S. representatives that "Hezbollah is an enemy of Lebanon. They are an enemy of the Lebanese government," and said he hoped for a "paradigm, which Lebanon's government and Israel can work together, to disarm Hezbollah and allow the people of Lebanon to reclaim its country."

At the beginning of the talks, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, denounced on X Hezbollah's fire rockets attacks on northern Israel on Wednesday afternoon, calling it a "new flagrant violation" of the agreement announced by Trump on Monday. The U.S. president had said Israel agreed not to bomb the southern suburbs of Beirut in exchange for a halt to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on northern Israel.

"Hezbollah launched rockets this morning toward Kiryat Shmona ... It should be remembered that Israel had agreed not to strike Hezbollah’s command centers in Beirut provided the group stopped attacking Israeli towns and villages," he wrote on X.

'If we want to save Lebanon ...'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, said in an interview on Wednesday with the American channel CNBC, that he shares with President Donald Trump the goal of disarming Hezbollah and demilitarizing Lebanon. "If we want to save Lebanon, if we want to get a Lebanese-Israeli peace, as I do, we have to disarm Hezbollah and we have to demilitarize Lebanon," Netanyahu said, adding that "this is a goal that the president and I share, and that's what we have to do."

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Tuesday that the southern suburbs of Beirut — a Hezbollah stronghold — would be struck if it targeted Israeli territory. He claimed to have U.S. approval after Donald Trump initially dissuaded Netanyahu on Monday from striking Beirut's southern suburbs, which have largely been spared since the nominal "cease-fire" came into effect in April.

According to Lebanese authorities, Hezbollah agreed Monday to a U.S. proposal under which Israel would refrain from striking the southern suburb in exchange for the group’s commitment to halt its attacks on Israel. However, Hezbollah official Mahmoud Comati, said Tuesday that the group would not accept a "partial cease-fire."

Hezbollah reopened the Lebanese front against Israel on March 2 in retaliation for the death of the Iranian supreme leader, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran. Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,500 people and displaced over a million, according to authorities. On the Israeli side, 26 soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in Lebanon.