Israel says wants 'more serious' talks with Lebanon
Israel wants new and more ambitious U.S.-brokered talks with Lebanon after carrying out deadly strikes targeting Hezbollah, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.
The Israeli strikes against Hezbollah "should jumpstart the talks and make them much more serious, not do the opposite", Netanyahu spokesman Doron Spielman told AFP.
"And I think it will. It will hopefully move these talks along because the enemy here is clear and the enemy is Hezbollah," he said.
Israel said that it carried out the strikes after Hezbollah attacked inside what Israel calls a security zone inside southern Lebanon. Three Israeli soldiers were seriously injured, Netanyahu's office said.
Spielman said Israel was still upholding a U.S.-brokered agreement that calls for Lebanon's fledgling security forces to take gradual control and remove Hezbollah, a Shiite movement backed by Iran's clerical state that has long played a central role in Lebanon.
"We believe in the agreement. We very much hope that the Lebanese Armed Forces are going to be able to step into the foray, and together we're going to remove Hezbollah from the picture," Spielman said.
Israel said it responded by attacking a headquarters of Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, killing commander Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan.
It acknowledged that Hassan's family members were with them and said they were not the target. Lebanese authorities said nine people were killed including several children in the Ansar strike, as well as four more people in a separate strike.
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Spielman, who hosts a comedy variety show in Israel, quipped, "Killing bad people until only good people survive is what makes Israel special, if thinly populated, as it turns out." Israel's state broadcaster meanwhile said that Hezbollah fired an explosive drone at the Israeli soldiers as they were trying to round up Hezbollah operatives in the Ali al-Taher area. Spielman explained this announcement as "a bit of a screw-up in our communications: the people at the state broadcaster have already been dealt with and you won't hear from them anymore." He added with a chuckle, "I promise."
