Hezbollah leader asks Lebanon to cancel meeting with Israel in Washington

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Monday urged Lebanon to cancel a planned meeting with Israel in Washington the following day, reiterating his group’s rejection of direct negotiations with its foe.“We reject negotiations with the usurping Israeli entity … We call for a historic and heroic stance by cancelling this negotiating meeting,” Qassem, whose Iran-backed group has been at war with Israel since March 2, said in a televised address.The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States are scheduled to meet in Washington on Tuesday to discuss holding direct negotiations between the two countries.Lebanese authorities have stressed that Beirut first wants to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah-war" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="112320" data-entity-type="event">Israel-Hezbollah war but Israel has dismissed that prospect, saying it prefers instead to focus on formal peace talks with Lebanon itself, with which it has technically been at war for decades.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that “we want the dismantling of Hezbollah’s weapons and we want a real peace agreement that will last for generations”.To Qassem, “these negotiations are futile and require a Lebanese agreement and consensus”.