Israel, Lebanon officials meet in expanded truce talks

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Israel and Lebanon sent new representatives to a military committee monitoring a truce between the countries, top officials from both said on Wednesday, in a move set to expand the scope of talks between the long-time foes.

The meeting was a step towards a months-long U.S. demand that the two countries broaden talks beyond monitoring the 2024 ceasefire, in line with U.S. President Donald Trump's broader agenda of peace agreements across the Middle East.

Beirut remains officially in a state of war with Israel, and Lebanon criminalises contacts with Israeli nationals. Meetings between civilian officials from the two sides have been extraordinarily rare throughout their fraught history.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun has said in recent months, however, that he is open to negotiations to pursue a more robust truce and dispatched a civilian envoy on Wednesday for the first time.

Israel said it will send a representative in a bid to establish a relationship and economic cooperation with Lebanon.

'POSITIVE SIGNAL'

The committee, chaired by the U.S., met on Wednesday for approximately three hours on the Blue Line, which serves as the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.

Since it was established to monitor the 2024 truce, it has only been attended by military officials from Israel, Lebanon, the U.S. and France, as well as United Nations peacekeepers.

Aoun's office said he appointed Simon Karam, a former ambassador to the U.S., to head Lebanon's delegation after the U.S. told Beirut that Israel had also agreed "to include a non-military member" in its delegation at the meetings.

A Lebanese source familiar with Karam's appointment said Aoun had repeatedly signalled his openness to negotiations with Israel in recent months but had received no response.

"When the U.S. passed on that the Israelis were appointing a civilian to the Mechanism, Lebanon took this as a positive signal from them and appointed one as well," the source said.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Gil Reich, acting director of the National Security Council, a civilian governmental body, to send a delegate on his behalf.

"This is an initial attempt to establish a basis for a relationship and economic cooperation between Israel and Lebanon," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.

A Lebanese security official briefed on the meeting only said it was "positive" and declined to say whether the agenda, which typically only covers the ceasefire's implementation, was broadened to include any political or economic issues.

FEARS OF ESCALATION

Hezbollah's media office did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters on the talks' expansion.

The Iran-backed group has repeatedly rejected any negotiations with Israel as a "trap".

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in 2024 that ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. Since then, they have traded accusations over violations.

Israel has continued air strikes on what it says are Hezbollah's efforts to rebuild its military capabilities in breach of the truce. Lebanon says Israel's bombardment and occupation of hilltop positions in South Lebanon are breaches.

Wednesday's appointments coincide with the arrival in Beirut of U.S. Special Representative for Lebanon Morgan Ortagus, and representatives from the U.N. Security Council's 15 members.

Ortagus is travelling from Israel and will attend Wednesday's meeting on the Blue Line, sources familiar with her agenda said.

Fears have been growing in Lebanon that Israel will expand its strikes to a full-blown military campaign after expressing frustration with the pace of Lebanon's efforts to confiscate Hezbollah's weapons across the country.

Two Israeli security officials said Netanyahu discussed additional operational plans to prevent Hezbollah's re-armament with Israeli defence officials on November 27.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, Maayan Lubell and Maya Gebeily; Writing by Maya Gebeily, Editing by Ed Osmond and Andrew Heavens)