Ambassadors meet for historic talks in US amid deeply fraught Lebanon-Israel tensions

Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome Simon Mabon, Professor of International Politics and Director of the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies at Lancaster University. He sees the current conflict between Lebanon and Israel as one defined more by layered, overlapping sovereignties. The talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials are, on the surface, historically significant. Yet they risk being misunderstood if treated as conventional diplomacy. The central issue is that Israel is not confronting the Lebanese state, but rather Hezbollah, a hybrid political and militant group.