Lebanon president aiming to end hostilities with Israel talks

BEIRUT, Apr 21 (AFP): Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that planned talks with Israel aim to end hostilities and the occupation in southern Lebanon, even as Hezbollah and its supporters rejected the negotiations.

Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has sharply criticised the Lebanese government's negotiations with Israel, which are set to enter a second round on Thursday.

After the first round of talks last week, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day truce pausing more than six weeks of war between Hezbollah and Israel, an explosive front in the broader Middle East war.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told AFP it was in Aoun's and Lebanon's "interest" to withdraw from the talks, however adding that his group also wanted the ceasefire to last.

New talks between Lebanon's and Israel's US ambassadors will take place Thursday in Washington, a US State Department official told AFP, after the first direct talks between the two countries in decades was held on April 14.

But Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported an Israeli drone strike in Qaqaiyat al-Jisr in the country's south on Monday, and Israeli artillery shelling on the border town of Hula.

The Lebanese health ministry said six people were wounded in Qaqaiyat al-Jisr.