Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to meet in Washington, while a federal judge declined for now to block Trump’s mail-in voting order.
WASHINGTON — Lebanese and Israeli military officials are expected to meet Friday in Washington as U.S.-Iran talks continue, while a federal judge in the capital declined, for now, to block President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at restricting voting by mail.
The meeting comes at a delicate moment in the region. Iran has said it will not sign an agreement with the United States unless the war in Lebanon ends, and Vice President Vance said Thursday night that there was still no U.S.-Iran agreement, though officials were “very close.”
U.S. and Iranian officials have discussed possible arrangements over the past week to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and delay nuclear talks, NPR reported. Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium remains among the sticking points.
Lebanon enters the Washington meeting with limited leverage. Hezbollah, which emerged in the 1980s in response to an Israeli invasion, has become deeply embedded in Lebanese politics and wields significant power. NPR’s Jane Arraf reported from Beirut that Hezbollah spokesman Youssef al-Zein said the group would not disarm while Lebanon remains under attack.
Lebanon is supposed to be under a ceasefire, but Israeli strikes have continued. Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh told NPR that the strikes have put Roman sites and a Crusader castle at risk, and said he hoped a ceasefire would come soon so officials could assess the damage.
In a separate Washington development, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols denied requests to temporarily block Trump’s March 31 executive order on mail-in voting, leaving it in effect while litigation continues.
The order directs the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration to compile lists of adult U.S. citizens in each state and provide them to state election officials. It also calls for the U.S. Postal Service to develop lists of eligible voters and deliver mail-in ballots only to people on those lists.
Nichols, a Trump nominee, did not rule on the underlying legality of the order. He found that the challengers had moved too early because federal agencies had not yet carried out the directives in a way that created immediate harm.
“Plaintiffs may, of course, renew their motions if and when those future actions occur,” Nichols wrote. “Until then, however, Plaintiffs cannot show that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted.”
Democrats, voting rights groups and other opponents have argued that the Constitution gives Congress and state legislatures — not the president — authority over federal election rules, and that the order could push the Postal Service beyond its legal role. They have also warned that government citizenship lists could contain errors that prevent eligible voters from receiving ballots.
The White House welcomed the ruling. Trump has said the order is intended to stop illegal voting by noncitizens in federal elections; reviews and research cited by NPR have found that such voting is extremely rare.
The ruling does not end the legal fight. Another federal judge is expected to rule as early as June in a similar set of lawsuits in Boston, and Nichols left open the possibility that challengers could return to court if agencies begin implementing the order in ways that affect voters or states.
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