Ammon News - Lebanese and Israeli representatives are scheduled to meet in Washington Tuesday for US-mediated talks on ending the war in Lebanon, but the prospects of an agreement appear slim.

Naim Qassem the leader of pro-Iran Hezbollah, which is battling Israel called for the talks to be scrapped before they even began, describing them as "futile."

Lebanon was pulled into the region-wide Iran war on March 2 after Hezbollah attacked Israel.

Since then Israeli strikes including an extremely heavy attack on Beirut on April 8 have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than one million, despite international calls for a ceasefire. And Israeli ground forces have invaded south Lebanon.

The meeting mediated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio will include the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington and the US ambassador to Beirut.

"The Israeli and Lebanese governments are engaging in open, direct, high-level diplomatic talks the first such talks since 1993 brokered by the United States," a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.

AFP