Chair: Euripides Evriviades, Ambassador (Ad Honorem), Senior Fellow of the Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs

Comments by Professor Andreas Theophanous, President of the Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs

Abstract

Israel and Lebanon have been in an official state of war since 1948, with periodic armed conflicts taking place since the late 1960s involving Israel and non-state actors operating on Lebanese territory. In November 2024 a ceasefire was announced, seemingly ending the latest such conflict: an armed confrontation between Israel and Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. But the ceasefire has neither prevented ongoing Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah personnel and weapons sites nor ended the occupation of parts of southern Lebanon by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This, even as the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) seek to establish security in southern Lebanese districts adjoining Israel and even as the Government of Lebanon (GOL) pursues the disarmament and demobilization of Hezbollah throughout Lebanon. Israel-Lebanon talks at the official, diplomatic level have begun, but is peace possible?  What can be done to end over five decades of deadly, destructive violence and eventually bring these two neighbors to peace and normalization?  For several months Ambassador Frederic C. Hof and a Canadian colleague have been shuttling between Lebanon and Israel on a Track II (unofficial) diplomatic project aimed at answering this question. Ambassador Hof will summarize what they have found.

RSVP by January 21, 2026 – 22841600, e-mail: [email protected]