Foreign Relations

U.S. Moves Keep Israel-Lebanon Rome Talks on Track After Reservists Killed

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Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of a formal U.S.-mediated negotiating session in an ornate reception room, with delegations seated around a large U-shaped table draped in pale yellow cloth and the American, Lebanese and Israeli flags standing behind the central seats.

Israeli and Lebanese delegations were set to convene in Rome on Thursday for the third and final day of their U.S.-brokered round, a day after an explosive device killed Maj. Harel Birenstock and Sgt. Maj. Tamir Vaknin and seriously wounded four reservists in Majdal Zoun. The IDF resumed strikes on Hezbollah targets in response, citing a blatant violation of the ceasefire. A senior Lebanese official said Washington acted urgently to keep the attack from derailing the negotiations and to hold the Israeli response to a limited scope. The delegations remain split over who would verify Hezbollah's removal from the pilot zones, with Israel insisting on carrying out that verification itself.

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