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Welcome back to World Brief, where we\u2019re looking at negotiations to end the Israel-Hezbollah<\/strong> conflict in Lebanon<\/strong>, U.S.<\/strong> and Iranian <\/strong>nuclear deal proposals, and the devastating impact of Super Typhoon Sinlaku<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Israel and Lebanon held rare, U.S.-mediated peace talks<\/a> in Washington on Tuesday aimed at resolving the devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group based in Lebanon. \u201cWe discovered today that we are on the same side of the equation,\u201d said Yechiel Leiter<\/a>, Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United States, adding that both countries were \u201cunited in liberating Lebanon\u201d from Hezbollah\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Welcome back to World Brief, where we\u2019re looking at negotiations to end the Israel-Hezbollah<\/strong> conflict in Lebanon<\/strong>, U.S.<\/strong> and Iranian <\/strong>nuclear deal proposals, and the devastating impact of Super Typhoon Sinlaku<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Israel and Lebanon held rare, U.S.-mediated peace talks<\/a> in Washington on Tuesday aimed at resolving the devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group based in Lebanon. \u201cWe discovered today that we are on the same side of the equation,\u201d said Yechiel Leiter<\/a>, Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United States, adding that both countries were \u201cunited in liberating Lebanon\u201d from Hezbollah\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to negotiations<\/a> last week only after Tehran warned that it would withdraw from its two-week cease-fire with the United States if Israel did not cease its attacks on Hezbollah. Iran and Pakistan maintain that Lebanon was part of the U.S.-Iran cease-fire deal<\/a>. However, Israel and the United States disagree, with the U.S. State Department arguing that Tuesday\u2019s talks were not connected to Washington\u2019s recent negotiations with Tehran in Islamabad.<\/p>\n According to a U.S. statement<\/a> released on Tuesday, Israel and Lebanon agreed to \u201claunch direct negotiations\u201d to end their dispute, specifying that \u201cany agreement to cease hostilities must be reached between the two governments, brokered by the United States, and not through any separate track.\u201d This suggests that Beirut has sided with Israel\u2019s and Washington\u2019s demand that Lebanon not be part of the U.S.-Iran deal.<\/p>\n Notably, though, Beirut has no direct control<\/a> over Hezbollah, and Israel and Lebanon do not have diplomatic relations. On Monday, Hezbollah leader Qassem Naim condemned the dialogue, calling it a ploy to pressure the militant group to disarm, and supporters of the proxy organization took to the streets to protest Beirut\u2019s diplomatic involvement. No representative from Hezbollah attended Tuesday\u2019s negotiations.<\/p>\n The historic meeting\u2014the first bilateral engagement between Israel and Lebanon in decades\u2014concluded after roughly two hours. According to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Tuesday\u2019s dialogue was about more than just securing a truce. \u201cThis is about bringing a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah influence in this part of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The most recent round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah ignited on March 2, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Since then, the Israeli military has carried out heavy aerial bombardments<\/a> on Beirut as well as a ground invasion<\/a> of southern Lebanon, citing a need to protect Israeli citizens living near the border.<\/p>\n According to Lebanon\u2019s health ministry on Monday, more than 2,000 people<\/a>\u2014including 252 women and 166 children\u2014have been killed in Lebanon since March 2. Around 1 million others have been displaced<\/a>. Israel estimates that Hezbollah strikes during this same time period have killed at least 12 Israeli soldiers and two civilians.<\/p>\n Several foreign governments and international humanitarian agencies have denounced Israel\u2019s continued assault on Lebanon. On Tuesday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suspended<\/a> the automatic renewal of her country\u2019s defense cooperation deal with Israel, alluding to an Israeli attack last week on Italian troops serving in Lebanon under a United Nations mandate.<\/p>\n The International Committee of the Red Cross also expressed serious concern<\/a> with Israeli strikes on Lebanese medical workers, after Israel hit a Red Cross center in the Lebanese city of Tyre on Monday, killing at least one person. Israel\u2019s military said it had carried out a targeted strike on a \u201cHezbollah terrorist\u201d in Tyre and was investigating reports that a Red Cross facility was damaged.<\/p>\n Yet much of the international community applauded Tuesday\u2019s meeting as a necessity for eventual peace. \u201cWe call on both parties to seize this opportunity,\u201d foreign ministers from 18 countries wrote in a joint statement<\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cDirect negotiations can pave the way to bring lasting security for Lebanon and Israel as well as the region.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S.-Iran negotiations. <\/strong>A new round of in-person U.S.-Iran peace talks in Islamabad could occur as early as this week, U.S. President Donald Trump told the New York Post<\/em><\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cYou should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we\u2019re more inclined to go there,\u201d Trump told the Post<\/em> reporter, who was still in the Pakistani city.<\/p>\n Negotiations there over the weekend ended without a breakthrough, prompting the White House to impose a blockade<\/a> on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>. Still, financial markets<\/a> on Tuesday reacted optimistically<\/a> to the prospect of continued diplomatic engagement.<\/p>\n During last weekend\u2019s talks, the U.S. delegation\u2014led by Vice President J.D. Vance\u2014reportedly proposed<\/a> a minimum<\/a> 20-year \u201csuspension\u201d of all Iranian nuclear activity rather than a permanent ban on uranium enrichment. This would allow Tehran to maintain its self-proclaimed right to produce nuclear fuel. The United States also demanded that Iran remove its highly enriched uranium<\/a> from the country. In response, Iranian officials issued a shorter-term counterproposal to suspend uranium enrichment for up to five years and implement a \u201cmonitored process of down-blending,\u201d which makes highly enriched uranium less potent, rather than giving it up.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ball is very much in their court,\u201d Vance told Fox News<\/a> on Monday. \u201cYou ask what happens next. I think the Iranians are going to determine what happens next.\u201d However, one source told NBC<\/a> on Tuesday that the White House finds Tehran\u2019s counteroffer unacceptable.<\/p>\n Harbinger of severe weather. <\/strong>Super Typhoon Sinlaku was forecasted to make landfall as a Category 4 storm<\/a> on the remote Northern Mariana Islands on Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands of people in the U.S. territory to seek shelter. Having already inflicted significant damage to parts of Micronesia, Sinlaku is expected to hit the Tinian and Saipan islands. According to meteorologists, Sinlaku is the strongest tropical storm recorded this year.<\/p>\n The U.S. National Weather Service warned on Tuesday of \u201cdevastating damage<\/a>\u201d from airborne debris in the Northern Mariana Islands as well as the likelihood that water and electricity will be unavailable for days. According to the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center, sustained winds reached 173 miles per hour on Monday, though they were expected to decrease in strength. Trump has already approved an emergency disaster declaration<\/a> for the U.S. territory to allow the provision of federal aid.<\/p>\n Sinlaku\u2019s timing so early in the typhoon season could be a harbinger of more devastating storms<\/a>. As warming waters generate stronger systems, experts predict that 2026 could be unusually active for severe tropical weather. Last week, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts said that there is a high chance<\/a> of a supercharged El Ni\u00f1o weather pattern this year; only five super El Ni\u00f1os have been recorded<\/a> since 1950.<\/p>\n Will Beijing get involved? <\/strong>Chinese President Xi Jinping and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez agreed on Tuesday to bolster bilateral collaboration<\/a> amid an increasingly splintered world order. \u201cWe should strengthen communication, consolidate mutual trust, cooperate closely, oppose the world\u2019s retrogression to the law of the jungle, and jointly safeguard genuine multilateralism,\u201d Xi told S\u00e1nchez during a reception at Beijing\u2019s Great Hall of the People.<\/p>\n S\u00e1nchez, whose government has faced Trump\u2019s ire for opposing the Iran war, also told Xi that Beijing is the only global power<\/a> that Madrid believes can help end the war<\/a>. \u201cI find it very difficult to find other interlocutors, beyond China, who can resolve this situation in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said.<\/p>\n Xi also met separately with Emirati Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al \u200bNahyan on Tuesday. Although Beijing has repeatedly criticized the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, Xi has personally stopped short<\/a> of publicly rebuking the conflict. However, he told Sheikh Khaled while discussing the war on Tuesday that rule of law<\/a> cannot be \u201cused when convenient and discarded when not.\u201d<\/p>\n For less than $120, you could have been the lucky winner of a literal masterpiece. Pablo Picasso\u2019s \u201cHead of a Woman\u201d (worth $1 million) was up for raffle<\/a> at a charity event at Christie\u2019s auction house in Paris on Tuesday. The famous painting now belongs to Ari Hodara, a 58-year-old self-described art amateur who purchased a $117 ticket to the raffle over the weekend after learning about the event. \u201cHow do I check that it\u2019s not a hoax?\u201d Hodara said after being informed that he had won in the lottery draw.<\/p>\n The Alzheimer Research Foundation organized the function, with nearly all proceeds going toward Alzheimer\u2019s research; 1 million euros was paid to Paris\u2019s Opera Gallery, an international art dealership that owns the painting.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nInitial Dialogue<\/h3>\n
Initial Dialogue<\/h3>\n
Today\u2019s Most Read<\/h3>\n
What We\u2019re Following<\/h3>\n
Odds and Ends<\/h3>\n