By Maya Gebeily
BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said he will travel to Israel on Wednesday to try to broker a ceasefire ending the war with the Lebanese Hezbollah group, after declaring further progress in the talks in Beirut.
Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Tuesday in an attempt to broker a ceasefire deal after the Lebanese government and Hezbollah agreed to a US ceasefire proposal, albeit with some comments.
“Today’s meeting built on yesterday’s meeting and made additional progress,” Hochstein said after his second meeting with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who was backed by Iran-backed Hezbollah to negotiate.
“So I will travel from here to Israel in a few hours to try to bring this to an end if possible,” Hochstein said.
The diplomacy aims to end a conflict that has caused massive destruction in Lebanon since Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah in September, launching airstrikes in large parts of the country and sending in troops.
Israel says its aim is to ensure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from the north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Hezbollah, still reeling from the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, has continued rocket fire into Israel, targeting Tel Aviv this week, and its fighters are battling Israeli forces on the ground in the south.
While diplomacy to end the war in Gaza has largely stalled, the Biden administration is seeking a ceasefire in the parallel conflict in Lebanon before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
“We are going to work with the new government. We are already going to discuss this with them. They will be fully aware of what we are doing,” Hochstein said.
Diplomats are seeking to restore a ceasefire based on a U.N. resolution that ended a previous conflict in 2006. Israel has said it wants the freedom to act against Hezbollah if it sees fit, even after a ceasefire has been agreed. Lebanon rejects this.
“The prerequisite for any diplomatic settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of our intelligence capabilities and the right of the (Israeli military) to act and protect Israeli citizens from Hezbollah,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told intelligence officials on Wednesday at a meeting.
Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem will deliver a speech at 4pm (2pm GMT), Hezbollah’s media office said.
UN RESOLUTION
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said in an interview with Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed that he did not want to raise expectations about the chances of a deal being struck. Hezbollah was working to “succeed its political course on national bases,” he added.
Berri has said that language on Israel’s freedom to act was not included in the US draft proposal submitted to him last week.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 requires the Lebanese state to have an arms monopoly in the area between the border and the Litani River, some 30 km north of it. This means that Hezbollah should not have a military presence near the border.
Israel has long complained that the resolution has not been implemented and that Hezbollah remains armed at the border. Lebanon also accused Israel of regularly violating the resolution.
The death toll since October 2023 stands at 3,544 people killed in Lebanon, including 902 women and children, the Lebanese Health Ministry says, with the majority killed in Israel’s offensive since September. The figures make no distinction between combatants and civilians.
Hezbollah attacks have killed 43 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to Israel, while 73 soldiers have been killed in attacks in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in fighting in southern Lebanon.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Tom Perry in Beirut and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Nadine Awadalla, Clauda Tanios, Nayera Abdallah, Jana Choukeir in Dubai; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Peter Graff)
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