Lebanon is urging the Trump administration to pressure Israel to scale back its demands and end its military invasion of the country as a fragile ceasefire nears expiration, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in an interview with The Washington Post.
Speaking in Paris ahead of a second round of rare direct talks with Israel, Salam warned that Lebanon cannot accept any agreement that does not include a “full withdrawal” of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.
“We cannot live with a so-called buffer zone,” he said, “an Israeli presence where Lebanese displaced people are not allowed to return, where destroyed villages and towns cannot be rebuilt.”
The ceasefire, brokered by the United States and announced by President Donald Trump on April 16, 2026, is set to expire at the end of this week. Lebanon is seeking to extend the 10-day truce, eventually secure an Israeli military withdrawal, and allow more than a million displaced people to return home.
Israel has said the ceasefire, which includes provisions in its favor, will not stop its military operations to devastate Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon.
Lebanese and Israeli diplomats are due to hold their second bargaining session on Thursday at the State Department, marking the first time in decades that officials from the two countries have bargained directly in a U.S. Bid toward potentially normalizing relations — a move long rejected by Hezbollah.
The development underscores the fragility of U.S.-mediated efforts to stabilize the Israel-Lebanon frontier amid ongoing tensions over Hezbollah’s presence and Israel’s security concerns.
