A civil defense member stands on rubble at a damaged site after Israel’s military said it struck targets in two southern Lebanese towns in Jbaa, southern Lebanon, Dec. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ali Hankir

Lebanon’s president on Friday defended his decision to expand talks with Israel as a way to avoid further violence, but the head of Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah called it a blunder, lifting the lid on divisions at a watershed moment for the country.

Israel and Lebanon on Wednesday both sent civilian envoys to a military committee monitoring their ceasefire, a step toward a months-old US demand that the two countries broaden talks in line with President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace agenda.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told visiting representatives of the United Nations Security Council that his country “has adopted the option of negotiations with Israel” and that “there is no going back.”

“These negotiations are mainly aimed at stopping the hostile actions carried out by Israel on Lebanese territory, securing the return of the captives, scheduling the withdrawal from the occupied areas, and resolving the disputed points along the Blue Line,” Aoun said in a statement on Friday, referring to the UN-mapped line that separates Israel from Lebanon.

HEZBOLLAH CALLS MOVE ‘FREE CONCESSION’

But the expanded talks were criticized by Iran-backed Hezbollah, an armed Islamist group that for years has wielded significant influence across Lebanon. However, Israel decimated the terrorist group’s leadership and military capabilities last fall after a year of fighting, significantly diminishing Hezbollah’s political clout in Lebanon.

Its head, Naim Qassem, said on Friday afternoon that sending a civilian delegate to the truce monitoring committee was a “blunder,” and urged the government to rethink its decision.

“You offered a free concession that will not change anything in the enemy’s [Israel‘s] position or its attacks,” Qassem said.

Lebanon and Israel have been officially enemy states for more than 70 years, and meetings between their civilian officials have been extraordinarily rare throughout their fraught history.

Over the last year, military officials have met as part of a committee, chaired by the United States, to monitor a 2024 truce that ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah which badly weakened the Iran-backed group.

In that time, Israel has continued its air strikes on what it says are Hezbollah‘s attempts to re-arm in violation of the truce. Lebanon says those strikes and Israel‘s occupation of southern Lebanese territory are ceasefire breaches.

Fears are growing in Lebanon that Israel could expand its air campaign further to ratchet up pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah more swiftly across the country.

The group has refused to disarm in full and has raised the specter of internal strife if the state tries to confront it.