Representatives from Lebanon and Israel, officially at war for decades, resumed talks at the State Department in Washington shortly after 9am (5pm, Singapore time), one diplomat said.
The US described the first day of talks in Washington on Thursday as positive, but neither Lebanon or Israel have commented.
Lebanon hopes that the round of negotiations in Washington on Friday will end with an extension of the ceasefire and an agreement from Israel to halt its attacks.
If an extension is not agreed, the truce will expire on Sunday.
“HUMILIATING TALKS”
Israeli attacks since then have killed more than 2,900 people in Lebanon, including more than 400 since the truce took effect, according to Lebanese authorities.
The negotiating teams in Washington are being led by Lebanon’s Simon Karam and Israel’s Yechiel Leiter, both political veterans with entrenched views.
A former ambassador to Washington and independent politician, 76-year-old Karam is known for his defence of Lebanese unity in a country riven by sectarian divisions.
Leiter is Israel’s ambassador to the United States and a longtime ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is well-versed in Israeli settler politics, conservative activism and hard-edged diplomacy.
Lebanon is under heavy US and Israeli pressure to disarm Hezbollah.
Israeli troops have invaded parts of southern Lebanon since the start of the war, carrying out widespread demolitions of villages over the past weeks.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, rejects outright any direct engagement between the two countries.
Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qamati said Friday that Beirut “going to direct, humiliating negotiations with the Israeli enemy is not a separate issue from a comprehensive conspiracy against the nation, its sovereignty and its resistance” at a time when “the south is being destroyed and martyrs are being killed daily”.
