US says Hezbollah is 'trying to derail talks' with Israel

The United States says Hezbollah is trying to derail talks between Lebanon and Israel, adding a new layer of pressure to an already fragile diplomatic process.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Washington is trying to create conditions for good-faith conversations between the two sides, but accused Hezbollah of using attacks and threats to undermine the effort. The remarks were carried in Al Jazeera’s May 7 coverage.

The statement came a day after Reuters reported that Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since the ceasefire with Hezbollah. Reuters said the strike targeted a Hezbollah Radwan Force commander.

The diplomatic backdrop is the U.S.-backed direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials in Washington, which AP reported last month as the first such contacts in decades. Hezbollah has already signaled that it does not consider itself bound by any outcome of those talks.

The latest strike and the U.S. criticism together underscore how difficult it remains to separate diplomacy from conflict on the ground. Lebanon remains under a Level 4 U.S. travel warning, with the State Department citing ongoing security risks.

For now, the main question is whether the Beirut strike and the public U.S. warning push the talks forward, or make the diplomatic track harder to sustain.