Der Libanon sucht direkte Friedensgespräche mit Israel, die USA und Israel sind skeptisch

* Beirut reportedly proposed holding direct talks with Israel at the ministerial level in Cyprus.
* It’s rather unprecedented, as talks on this level never (?) took place as according to Anti-Israel boycott Law “It is prohibited for any natural or legal person to conclude, personally or through an intermediary, an agreement with organizations or persons residing in Israel or holding Israeli citizenship, or to work on their behalf or in their interest, when the purpose of this agreement involves commercial or financial operations, or any other transaction, of any nature whatsoever.”. In other words talking to Israeli considered to be treason in Lebanon.
* Also this is probably first ever suggestion by Lebanon to hold peace talks or public expression of interest in some kind of normalization

On a personal note, about 20 years ago during previous-previous war with Lebanon, I met via internet some lebanese guy from beirut. We spent a lot of time chatting via icq while he was watching beirut bombed. About year later he came to visit me and some other people in Israel (he had additional to lebanese citizenship). When he came back to Lebanon, it became known that he visited Israel (he was rather prominent blogger those days) and hezbollah/local security forces tried to locate him and arrest for „contact with enemny“ and he had to escape Lebanon