Rubio hosts Israeli, Lebanese envoys for first direct talks in decades

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors in Washington on Tuesday for the first direct peace talks between the countries in decades. Rubio is mediating the talks between Israeli envoy Yechiel Leiter and Lebanon's Nada Hamadeh Moawad, which began around 1500 GMT. But pro-Iran Hezbollah -- which is battling Israeli forces in southern Lebanon -- called for the talks to be scrapped before they even began.