WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) – Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of a ceasefire U.S. President Donald Trump declared on April 16, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.
“The April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress,” State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott said.
The State Department cast Israel-Lebanon talks – held in Washington on Thursday and Friday – as “highly productive” and said the countries would reconvene negotiations on June 2 and June 3.
This week’s talks were the sides’ third meeting since Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on March 2, three days into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Israel had widened its ground invasion into Lebanon’s south last month.
Fought in parallel to the U.S.-Iran conflict, Israel’s war in Lebanon has rumbled on since U.S. President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire on April 16, though hostilities have largely been contained to southern Lebanon since then.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya, Katharine Jackson; editing by Michelle Nichols)
