The president reiterated that the U.S. continues to demand that Iran stop it’s backing of proxy groups in the Mideast, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, as part of any deal between Washington and Tehran to end the U.S. war on Iran.

"Yeah, they’ll have to cut that," Trump said to a reporter’s question about aiding the militant group. "That’s a must."

Speaking alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said Israel and Lebanon “have never been next to each other more than today.”

Leiter thanked Trump and Vice President JD Vance for a day he said was decades in the making.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he expected the Israeli and Lebanese leaders to meet with him over the next couple of weeks and voiced hope for a permanent peace deal this year.

"I think there's a very good chance of having peace. I think it should be an easy one," Trump told reporters as he met the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to announce an extension of a shaky ceasefire.

Hezbollah shot down one an Israeli drone in south Lebanon on Friday, hours after a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group was extended.

Hezbollah stated that its fighters launched a surface-to-air missile that shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over the Tyre region.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House on Thursday.

Trump said the meeting between the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon to the United States went "very well." The meeting was the second high-level talks between the two countries since last week. The initial 10-day ceasefire, which took effect last Friday, had been due to expire on Monday.

Saudi envoy Yazid bin Farhan met again Thursday evening with Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, without media coverage, to discuss the details of implementing the Taif Agreement in its entirety, without any procrastination, LBCI television reported.

Tonight's second round of preparatory direct talks between Lebanon and Israel will be held at the White House instead of the State Department, Lebanese TV networks said.

The meeting is scheduled for 11:00 pm Beirut time (8:00 pm GMT).

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed three people on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the latest attack despite a 10-day truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In a statement, the ministry said that "an Israeli airstrike on the Shoukine road in the Nabatieh district," more than 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Israel, killed three people while artillery shelling of the village of Yater wounded two people, including a child.

Lebanon's leaders accused Israel on Thursday of committing a war crime, after an airstrike killed a Lebanese journalist in the country's south, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the incident.

Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan held talks on Thursday, discussing the latest developments in Lebanon and the region, "particularly Israel's continued aggression against Lebanon, including its ongoing systematic destruction of border villages," Berri's office said.