The two sides have not officially recognized diplomatic relations with each other and since 1955 Lebanon has enacted a law prohibiting Lebanese citizens from having any contact with Israel. Since Israel resumed fighting with Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Prime Minister has refused to talk by phone with the Israeli Prime Minister.
US President Donald Trump praised the ceasefire agreement as having historical significance and said he would invite Israeli and Lebanese Prime Ministers to the US to negotiate peace at the highest level. In essence, this ceasefire agreement is the result of the coercion of the situation for both the US and Israel and Lebanon.
The root cause is that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon cannot be separated from the conflict between the US - Israel and Iran. The US and Iran, after many days of fierce fighting, have just reached a ceasefire agreement. The next developments of this ceasefire agreement depend on whether Israel stops fighting in Lebanon or not. Therefore, it is said that the Israel - Lebanon ceasefire agreement is only a separate ceasefire between these two sides in a common battle. The agreement contains very general content and is very easy to break because the Lebanese government does not have enough actual capacity to sanction Hezbollah while the US and Israel really want but do not have enough actual capacity to disarm or completely eliminate Hezbollah forces.
The Lebanese government needs to agree on a ceasefire with Israel so that Lebanon is not drawn into the conflict between the US and Israel with Iran and Lebanon does not become a card in Iran's hands when negotiating with the US. Israel is forced to enter this ceasefire agreement with Lebanon and absolutely does not want it because of the policy of taking advantage of reconciliation between the US and Iran to focus on eliminating Hezbollah and taking advantage of fighting to occupy certain territories in southern Lebanon for a long time. Israel is forced to accept a ceasefire with Lebanon because of strong pressure from the US. Most recently, Mr. Trump also expressed frustration about Israel's failure to comply with the ceasefire in Lebanon with the public statement that "the US prohibits Israel from airstrikes on Lebanon". Never before has Mr. Trump been so harsh with Israel. Mr. Trump really needs a ceasefire in Lebanon because Iran considers Israel's cessation of fighting with Hezbollah as a prerequisite for peace talks with the US and an indispensable part of any peace treaty with the US. If he succeeded in using military advantage to subdue Iran, Mr. Trump would not have agreed to negotiate peace with Iran. It is because of the need to negotiate peace with Iran to find a way out to bring the United States out of the conflict with Iran that Mr. Trump forced Israel to accept a ceasefire in Lebanon.
But it is also because of this that the prospect of a ceasefire or end of the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah now completely depends on the next developments of the conflict between the US and Israel with Iran as well as on the developments and outcomes of the US-Iran peace negotiation process. All signs show that the US and Iran cannot enter into substantive peace talks with each other and cannot be sure that the two-week peace talks agreement will be extended after expiring on April 21.
