The Hezbollah question

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Peace negotiations between Israel and Lebanon. Negotiators from both countries will meet in Washington today to discuss a potential ceasefire. The aim is to stop rocket and air attacks across their shared border.

NICK EICHER, HOST: At issue: whether Lebanon will agree to rein in the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah. WORLD Reporter Travis Kircher has the story.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: At Israel’s northern border, certain sounds have become a normal part of life.

SOUND: [Air raid sirens in northern Israel]

Like air raid sirens recorded by a resident who witnessed rockets fired across the border from Lebanon late last month. The sounds you hear are Israeli air defenses intercepting the rockets. And on Monday:

SOUND: [Rocket attack aftermath]

Israel rescue services picked through debris after they said a 60-year-old woman suffered injuries from a rocket attack. Those rockets, fired by the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah.

SOUND: [IDF strike in Beirut]

Over the past few weeks, the Israeli military has conducted what it says are targeted airstrikes against Hezbollah militants, like this one late last month on the terror group’s headquarters in southern Beirut.

SOUND: [Funeral for Red Cross worker]

On Monday a funeral was held for a Lebanese Red Cross worker who died in an Israeli drone attack.

MOTHER: [Speaking in Arabic]

Speaking here, the Red Cross worker’s mother says she’s waiting for a phone call from her son that will never come.

Israel’s actions have increasingly drawn criticism from world leaders.

Spokesman for the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs Pascal Confavreux told Fox News Sunday:

CONFAVREUX: The strikes have to stop on Lebanon. Lebanon is heavily destabilized. There is 1 million of displaced persons. There is almost 2,000 victims. Second, Iran has to stop terrorizing Israel through Hezbollah because Hezbollah chose to bring Lebanon into a war which is not Lebanon's war.

Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian says the Israeli military only targets Hezbollah militants, but they often embed themselves in civilian areas.

BEDROSIAN: Our actions are not against Lebanon and its citizens but against a murderous terrorist organization that has taken the Lebanese people as hostages. Now that Hezbollah has been so severely degraded, the government in Lebanon reached out for us for talks. ]

Bedrosian says the Israeli government comes to Washington today with firm conditions.

BEDROSIAN: We will not discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah, which continues to carry out indiscriminate attacks against Israel and our civilians.

Instead, she says Israel will deal only with the Lebanese government, which must promise to deal with the terror group itself.

BEDROSIAN: We're looking to make sure that there is some type of agreement between our two countries that would have to do with peace, peace relations between Israel and Lebanon, and also of course, the first and most important thing right now is to ensure that Hezbollah is disarmed, (that) they are demilitarized, and so is southern Lebanon as well.

SALAM: [Speaking Arabic]

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Sunday that he’s committed to finding a way to reach a ceasefire and end the war.

But that won’t be easy, especially amid the U.S. and Israel's ongoing conflict with Iran, currently paused by a fragile two-week ceasefire. Lebanon’s place in that ceasefire has been a point of contention.

Both the United States and Israel claim the current ceasefire deal with Iran does not include Lebanon. But Iranian leadership insists that it does. Tehran says it will only guarantee an end to the war in Iran if Israeli attacks in Lebanon stop.

SOUND: [Beirut protests]

In Beirut, demonstrators gathered over the weekend to protest against the negotiations.

And calls by Israel for Hezbollah to disarm drew sharp criticism from the head of the group:

QASSEM: [Speaking Arabic]

Speaking here, he said his organization rejects any negotiations with Israel, calling them pointless.

Today’s talks are considered a starting point for negotiations. If successful, those talks could continue in the days and weeks ahead.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

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