Israeli and Lebanese military officials are set to meet at the Pentagon on Friday in talks aimed at resolving their decades-long conflict, even as fighting increasingly shakes what remains of a ceasefire between the two countries. The meeting is due to launch a “security track” of negotiations between the countries’ military delegations, focused on fortifying their strained ceasefire, according to the State Department. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, negotiations are scheduled to focus on the “political track,” aimed at lasting calm.
Who Gets Managed From Above
The US has hosted Israeli and Lebanese negotiators for three rounds of talks since a ceasefire was declared in mid-April. That ceasefire has not stopped the machinery of war from grinding on. Israel issued sweeping evacuation orders to residents in seven towns and villages on Friday ahead of airstrikes on southern Lebanon, adding to evacuation orders across the region on Wednesday. For the people living under these orders, “security track” and “political track” sound less like peace and more like administrative language for displacement.
The Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah has launched a surge of drones on northern Israel in recent days, including one that killed Israeli soldier Rotem Yanai on Wednesday in a hit on a military zone on the Israeli side of the border. The violence has continued to move across the border while diplomats and military officials gather under US sponsorship to manage the fallout.
Airstrikes, Evacuations, and the Cost Below
The Israeli Air Force widened its offensive in Lebanon on Thursday with a strike on the suburbs of Beirut, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to escalate attacks. An Israeli security source told The Times of Israel that the target of the attack was Ali al-Husni, the head of an Iranian militia that operates alongside Hezbollah. Lebanese authorities said that at least 14 people, including children, were killed that day in Israeli strikes.
Those deaths and evacuation orders sit at the bottom of decisions made by military commands and political leaders. The people in southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut are the ones paying for the escalation, while the institutions that direct it keep speaking in the language of strategy, tracks, and negotiations.
What Washington Is Trying to Broker
The report also said the US and Iran had reportedly reached a tentative deal to extend their ceasefire by 60 days, pending US President Donald Trump’s approval. Vice President JD Vance did not confirm whether the president would sign the agreement when speaking to the press Thursday night. “The president will be in a position where he can endorse the agreement, but obviously that’s still TBD,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Vance also said that he “can’t guarantee” a deal would be reached. Trump has yet to comment on the proposal.
The expectation is that any deal would include opening the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s effective closure of the strait, a pathway for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas, has sent energy prices soaring and placed increasing pressure on the Trump administration. Oil prices dipped slightly on Thursday following news of the tentative deal. The bargaining over the strait shows how the movement of oil and gas remains a lever of power, with ordinary people absorbing the consequences through prices and pressure.
Trump and his officials have repeatedly suggested that the US was close to a deal with Iran. In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said that an agreement had been “largely negotiated,” including opening Hormuz, and that “final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly.” The language of imminent resolution has been repeated from above even as the ceasefire remains unstable on the ground.
The report said Iran launched a missile at a US airbase in Kuwait on Thursday, hours after the US fired at Bandar Abbas, an Iranian port city near the Strait of Hormuz. It said it was the second time in three days that the US had attacked targets in Iran, saying they were conducted in self-defense to intercept drones. Both countries claim the other has violated the current ceasefire.
For now, the Pentagon is hosting the next round of talks while airstrikes, drone attacks, evacuation orders, and missile launches continue to define life for people on both sides of the border. The institutions at the top keep calling it a process. The people underneath it keep living through the consequences.