Secretary of State Marco Rubio will convene the ambassadors from Israel and Lebanon in Washington on Tuesday for the highest-level direct talks between the countries in over 30 years.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh will represent their countries, with U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and State Department Counselor Michael Needham also taking part in the meeting.

The negotiations are meant to focus on how Israel and Lebanon can work together to disarm Hezbollah and make peace between the countries.

A State Department official said the talks are “a direct result of Hezbollah’s reckless actions,” and “will scope the ongoing dialog about how to ensure the long-term security of Israel’s northern border and to support the Government of Lebanon’s determination to reclaim full sovereignty over its territory and political life.”

“Israel is at war with Hezbollah, not Lebanon, so there is no reason the two neighbors should not be talking,” the State Department official said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam canceled a planned visit to the U.S. this week to monitor the situation from Beirut and “safeguard the security of the Lebanese people and preserve national unit,” he wrote on X. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the talks last week, marking a shift in his position from earlier in the Lebanon campaign that began after Hezbollah joined Iran in attacking Israel in late February. Netanyahu said over the weekend that he had agreed to the talks because they would not only be about a ceasefire, but about disarming Hezbollah and working toward peace with Lebanon. President Donald Trump said at the time that he asked Israel to “low-key a bit” the strikes in Lebanon. 

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi posted on X that the direct talks “in practice reinforced the separation between the Lebanese file and the Iranian track. … The Lebanese state alone holds the authority to negotiate on behalf of Lebanon.” 

The talks are set to take place as Hezbollah continues to launch rockets and drone attacks at northern Israel on a daily basis and the IDF continues to target Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The IDF said it struck about 150 Hezbollah targets on Monday, and it continues its ground operations in the Iran-backed terrorist organization’s stronghold of Bint Jbeil. 

The IDF cleared for publication on Tuesday the name of Sgt.-Maj. Ayal Uriel Bianco, who was killed in battle in Lebanon.

Netanyahu visited IDF troops in Lebanon over the weekend, and praised them on Monday for “pushing the enemy away from the border” and creating “a solid, deeper security zone that both prevents the danger of invasion and distances the anti-tank missile threat.”