Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh reports that it would be a significant breakthrough if a date is set for direct talks between Lebanon and Israel, but also if there is de-escalation and if Israel stops the bombardment, the forced displacement and the invasion.

“Certainly, the Lebanese government had broken a political taboo quite a while back by offering to have direct negotiations with Israel to end all outstanding issues,” Odeh adds. “Israel had demanded the disarmament of Hezbollah, and had even attacked and accused the Lebanese prime minister of lying and not doing enough.”

She calls the timing of this announcement “interesting”.

“On one hand, it offers a path to de-escalation, which would help the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran,” Odeh reports. “On the other, it would also allow Netanyahu to say that he was successful in separating the Lebanon war front from the Iran war front.”