Lebanon to join trilateral talks with Israel and US in Florida next week, Aoun says

Lebanon to join trilateral talks with Israel and US in Florida next week, Aoun says Lebanon will send a military delegation to a US-backed trilateral meeting with Israel in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday, President Joseph Aoun said on Saturday. In a statement from the presidency, Aoun said the delegation would present Lebanon’s demands for an end to Israeli escalation and push for outcomes in line with the US-brokered framework agreement reached in June. He said Israel had not committed to that agreement. Speaking as he received French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Aoun also called for the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, Unifil, to be extended through 2027. It is currently due to expire at the end of 2026. He said Lebanon would welcome any arrangement that kept an international presence in the south, preventing a security vacuum and keeping the Lebanese army from facing Israeli forces directly. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Saturday that the Israeli army carried out a large explosion in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah in Nabatieh governorate of southern Lebanon, after intermittent Israeli shelling near the town. The Lebanese army also said it had dismantled two unexploded bombs left by Israeli strikes in the southern towns of Kafra and Toulin. Unifil convoy driving past destroyed buildings in southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border, 22 June 2026 (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)