Ariel Kahana, diplomatic correspondent for Israel Hayom, assesses that Ambassador Yechiel Leiter's decision to suspend the Rome negotiations with Lebanon was driven by a Hezbollah attack involving an explosive device, not by leaks from the Lebanese delegation as the ambassador's team had stated. Kahana argues that despite leaks being routine, the 'hard news' from Lebanon made it impossible to continue talks as if nothing had happened.
The Rome negotiations between Israel and Lebanon were suspended on Wednesday, with Ambassador Yechiel Leiter's team initially citing repeated, tendentious leaks from the Lebanese delegation as the reason. As The Zioneer reported, the talks were expected to resume Thursday morning.
Ariel Kahana, diplomatic correspondent for Israel Hayom, now offers a different assessment. Writing Thursday morning, Kahana argues that the leaks were a pretext, and that the real cause was a Hezbollah attack involving an explosive device — an incident he describes as 'the hard news that came from Lebanon.' He notes that Leiter's team acknowledged that leaks occur constantly, and suggests that the attack made it untenable to continue negotiating with a government under whose auspices Hezbollah operates.
Kahana's analysis, while attributed to a single source, reflects a deepening tension between the diplomatic track and ongoing Hezbollah attacks on the ground. The suspension itself has not been officially reversed, though a US official indicated talks would resume Thursday.
2 developments
- StrongArab report: talks with Lebanon frozen, citing Rome explosion and Hezbollah demand
- DevelopingDiplomatic source: Israel-Lebanon negotiations in Rome suspended
- DevelopingReport: US intervention prevented escalation in southern Lebanon, saved Rome talks
- StrongSecurity establishment freezes planned Lebanon strike, probes whether lethal blast was an accident
Source and signal
- Open-source intake