MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Peace talks between the U.S. and Iran ended without agreement Sunday. In a few minutes, we'll hear from a former U.S. envoy to Iran on what could get diplomacy back on track.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
First, oil prices are hovering around a hundred dollars a barrel after a breakdown of U.S.-Iran peace talks and President Trump's threats to blockade Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.
MARTIN: It is straining an already shaky ceasefire across the Middle East. Attacks continue unabated in one country, Lebanon. Israel continues to target Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters there. Lebanese authorities say a Red Cross paramedic is among the more than 100 people killed in a weekend of Israeli attacks.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Lauren Frayer is in the capital of Beirut. Lauren, there is a regional ceasefire, but while the U.S. and Israel insist Lebanon is exempt, Israel has continued to attack that country.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: That's right. Israeli airstrikes have hit across the south of Lebanon and in border villages where Israel says it's seizing territory from Lebanon to create what it calls a buffer zone where Hezbollah can't fire cross-border rockets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually crossed into that zone yesterday, wore a flak jacket, stood on Lebanese soil and said Lebanese will not be allowed to return to their homes. As you know, more than a million people have been displaced by this Israeli invasion, mostly from that southern region.
Netanyahu's defense minister was there with him as well, said the goal is to do to Lebanon what Israel did to Gaza. He said they're destroying homes so that Hezbollah cannot use them, and the Lebanese government says Israel has already destroyed around 40,000 homes in the past 35 days. As you mentioned, in the latest attacks, a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance team. The Red Cross says they were directly targeted by an Israeli drone, killing one paramedic and wounding another. The Lebanese government says Israeli attacks have killed at least 87 medics in the past six weeks. Human rights groups call this a war crime.
MARTÍNEZ: Talks are set for tomorrow in Washington between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors. How do people view those?
FRAYER: They're really viewed as historic. I mean, these are the first direct government talks since 1983. A lot of people weren't alive the last time these two governments had contact. Israel and Lebanon are sworn enemies. It's the Lebanese government that is conducting these talks, but Hezbollah, which is the combatant and really a big power broker in Lebanon, does not support the talks. Hezbollah held a big rally here this weekend, filling several Beirut city blocks. Now, not everyone supports Hezbollah. Some Lebanese blame the group for dragging them into yet another war. But amid these constant Israeli attacks, at this rally I met people like this man, Khalil Harb (ph), who says he wouldn't normally be part of Hezbollah's Shiite Muslim base.
KHALIL HARB: I drink. I'm not religious. I don't pray. But I know concerning issues related to Israel, I'm with Hezbollah, of course.
FRAYER: People at the rally told me the real turning point came last week with this Israeli barrage of attacks on what locals are calling Black Wednesday, more than 350 people killed in a single day. Many in central Beirut, even along the city's waterfront, not Hezbollah strongholds.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Israel says one of its goals for those talks is to get Hezbollah to drop its weapons and disarm. Now, you recently got a rare account from inside that group.
FRAYER: I did. I interviewed a veteran Hezbollah field commander. He gave only his nom de guerre, Jihad, out of fear Israel would track and kill him, as it has many of his comrades. We spoke by phone, but not on his own device. He says Hezbollah has stopped using most electronics. He described passing handwritten notes on the battlefield through couriers on motorbikes. And he gave us this rare account of the group's org chart. He says there's much more direct control from Iran now. He told me that they never really disarmed after previous wars with Israel - relinquished only decoy weapons and hid their real arsenal underground. As you mentioned, disarming Hezbollah is one of Israel's demands in these talks in Washington.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in Beirut. Lauren, thanks.
FRAYER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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