{"id":6099,"date":"2026-04-16T08:46:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/trump-says-israel-and-lebanons-leaders-will-speak-on-thursday\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T08:46:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:46:59","slug":"trump-says-israel-and-lebanons-leaders-will-speak-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/trump-says-israel-and-lebanons-leaders-will-speak-on-thursday\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says Israel and Lebanon\u2019s leaders will speak on Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>United States President Donald Trump has announced that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon will speak to each other for the first time in 34 years on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement, made on Trump\u2019s Truth Social account on Wednesday, came a day after Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors held their first <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/14\/israel-and-lebanon-hold-rare-talks-in-washington-dc-amid-iran-war\">direct diplomatic talks<\/a> in more than three decades in Washington, DC, with Lebanon seeking to end Israel\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/15\/israel-bombs-homes-in-southern-lebanon\">devastating attacks<\/a> on the country.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/16\/hopes-grow-for-a-breakthrough-in-us-iran-talks-as-pakistan-mediates\">Hopes grow for a breakthrough in US-Iran talks as Pakistan mediates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/15\/israel-bombs-homes-in-southern-lebanon\">Israel bombs homes in southern Lebanon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/inside-story\/2026\/4\/15\/could-the-eus-alliance-with-israel-soon-change\">Could the EU\u2019s alliance with Israel soon change?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/15\/why-has-italys-giorgia-meloni-suspended-a-defence-pact-with-israel\">Why has Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni suspended a defence pact with Israel?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cTrying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon,\u201d Trump wrote.\u00a0\u201cIt has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow. Nice!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The US president did not specify which leaders would be involved in the talks.<\/p>\n<p>There was no official comment from Israel or Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>However, Gila Gamliel, a \u200cmember of Israel\u2019s security cabinet, told Israel\u2019s Army Radio on \u2060Thursday that \u2060Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will \u2060be speaking with \u2060Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. Lebanese officials told news agencies they had \u201cno \u2060information\u201d \u2060about any upcoming contact or talks with Israel\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Lebanon was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/15\/anger-in-lebanon-as-israel-launches-deadly-strikes-despite-diplomatic-drive\">pulled<\/a> into the US-Israel war on Iran on March 2, after Tehran-aligned Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Hezbollah said the attacks were in retaliation for Israel\u2019s killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, on February 28, as well as Israel\u2019s near-daily violations of a ceasefire it agreed to in Lebanon in November 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon and displaced some 1.2 million. The Israeli military has also launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, seeking to seize more territory and create what it calls a \u201cbuffer zone\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to expand the invasion in southern Lebanon, towards the east.<\/p>\n<p>He said Israel was pursuing negotiations with the Lebanese government alongside its military campaign against Hezbollah in the hopes of disarming the group and achieving a \u201csustainable peace\u201d with its northern neighbour.<\/p>\n<p>The Lebanese government, which is not a party to the conflict, has said it is seeking a ceasefire and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"controversial-statement\">\u2018Controversial\u2019 statement<\/h2>\n<p>Al Jazeera\u2019s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Lebanon\u2019s capital, Beirut, said there has been no information from the Lebanese government on Trump\u2019s statement yet.<\/p>\n<p>She described the US president\u2019s remarks as \u201ccontroversial\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is really a taboo in Lebanon for a Lebanese leader and Israeli leader to speak at a time that both countries are still technically at war, at a time that Israel continues to attack the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, could Trump be talking about a possible ceasefire? We know that the US administration has been pushing very hard on the Lebanon-Israel tract to separate the Lebanon front from the Iran front,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is what the whole meeting was about in Washington, DC \u2013 a photo opportunity and attempt to make sure that Hezbollah influence is weakened over Lebanon and that Iran\u2019s influence is weakened over Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, despite the diplomatic push, Israel has continued to launch deadly attacks on Lebanese civilians. On Wednesday, the Israeli military launched three consecutive strikes in the village of Mayfadoun, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/16\/israels-military-kills-four-lebanese-paramedics-in-consecutive-strikes\">killing four Lebanese paramedics<\/a> and wounding six others.<\/p>\n<p>According to Lebanon\u2019s Ministry of Public Health, Israeli forces have killed at least 91 Lebanese medical workers since March 2 and struck several medical facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Al Jazeera\u2019s Khodr said Israeli forces had also launched additional attacks in the vicinity of one of the last remaining hospitals in southern Lebanon, in the town of Tebnine. \u201cThere\u2019ve been two consecutive days of strikes around that hospital. It is clear Israel doesn\u2019t want this area to be liveable,\u201d she reported, referring to Israeli attacks that have destroyed civilian infrastructure, including bridges and thousands of homes.<\/p>\n<p>Fighting was also continuing around the town of Bint Jbeil.<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s military has said its troops have encircled the strategic hilltop town, but Hezbollah said its fighters inside the town were continuing to fight back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael is looking for some sort of military gain to claim victory. Bint Jbeil would be symbolic because it wasn\u2019t able to take control of the town during the last war in 2006, during 2024,\u201d Khodr said.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, she noted, both Israel and the US know Israel will have to occupy the whole of Lebanon if they want to disarm Hezbollah, something that would be costly and difficult to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael can continue to kill and destroy, but that will not change the fact that Hezbollah is not going to give up its arms. It needs the Lebanese government to partner with it in order for the disarmament process to begin,\u201d she added. \u201cSo we have to wait to see whether indeed a ceasefire will be in place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United States President Donald Trump has announced that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon will speak to each other for the first time in 34 years on Thursday. The announcement, made on Trump\u2019s Truth Social account on Wednesday, came a day after Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors held their first direct diplomatic talks in more than &#8230; <a title=\"Trump says Israel and Lebanon\u2019s leaders will speak on Thursday\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/trump-says-israel-and-lebanons-leaders-will-speak-on-thursday\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump says Israel and Lebanon\u2019s leaders will speak on Thursday\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}