U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus on Wednesday held a high-level meeting on the implementation of the year-old ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon at the UN headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.

The meeting came a day after Ortagus met with Israeli leaders on Tuesday, where she was shown unequivocal evidence of Hezbollah’s violations of the ceasefire and Lebanon’s unwillingness to remedy the situation.

In a rare move, Israel and Lebanon sent diplomatic representatives to the meeting, which was attended by Israeli, Lebanese, US, French, and UNIFIL officials. Former ambassador to the US Simon Karam headed Lebanon’s delegation, and Dr. Uri Resnick of the National Security Council headed Lebanon’s delegation.

The unusual move, the first diplomatic engagement between the two countries in decades, came in response to pressure placed on Lebanon and Israel by Ortagus, who urged the two countries to include civilian representatives in the talks.

Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu”s office announced that Netanyahu was sending a representative to the talks in “a preliminary attempt to lay the groundwork for ties and economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)