Lebanon is demanding that the ceasefire with Israel is strengthened and extended as the two countries meet in Washington for the latest round of talks.
A ceasefire was declared on April 16 but violence has continued despite an initial drop in Israeli air strikes. It is due to expire on Sunday.
A Lebanese source told The National that Lebanon's focus is for the ceasefire to be properly respected.
“The key Lebanese demand will be to enforce and consolidate the ceasefire,” the source said.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel has repeatedly struck Hezbollah and the Iran-backed militants have attacked Israeli troops.
At least 380 people have been killed by Israeli attacks, mainly in southern Lebanon, since the ceasefire took effect, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
Israel has also issued forced displacement orders to residents of dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon.
A State Department official confirmed that the meeting of Lebanese and Israeli envoys, along with US officials, had started on Thursday morning. Talks were due to continue into Friday.
An Israeli government spokesperson said the talks were taking place with the goal of disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement.
Israel launched a wave of strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people on the eve of talks.
The Israeli military said an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah fell within Israeli territory near the border and injured several Israeli civilians.
Hezbollah said it carried out 17 attacks on Israeli troops in the south on Wednesday.
Peace deal this year?
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's decision to pursue the talks reflects deep divisions in Lebanon over Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982. The Beirut government has sought its disarmament since last year.
A parliamentary source close to the talks said that in recent days, strong opposition rhetoric from political forces and figures rejecting the option of direct negotiations with Israel has largely disappeared.
“Whatever objections remain are now being voiced more as a 'principled position' rather than a firm and decisive rejection,” the source said.
Lebanon will be represented by Nada Hamadeh Moawad, Lebanon’s ambassador to the US, and special envoy Simon Karam.
Israel will be represented by ambassador Yechiel Leiter and deputy national security adviser Yossi Draznin, while the US delegates include Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, Michel Issa, US envoy to Lebanon, and adviser Michael Needham.
The Washington talks mark the highest-level contact between Lebanon and Israel in decades.
Thursday's meeting at the State Department comes after the previous round of talks was hosted by President Donald Trump at the White House. He said at the time that he saw a “great chance” Lebanon and Israel would make a peace deal this year.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in a May 10 interview with the pan-Arab broadcaster Al Arabiya, said Lebanon's principles in negotiations were shoring up the ceasefire, securing a timetable for Israeli withdrawal, and winning the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.
The Lebanese health ministry says the war has killed 2,896 people in Lebanon since March 2, including 589 women, children and medics. Its toll does not say how many combatants have been killed.
Some 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon, many of them fleeing from the south.
Israel says 17 of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.
