United States envoy Amos Hochstein says Washington is looking to end the war in Lebanon “as soon as possible”, stressing that the US is seeking a lasting resolution to the crisis without providing many details about the diplomatic push.
After holding talks in Beirut on Monday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Hochstein suggested that ceasefire efforts are focused on the implementation of a United Nations Security Council resolution that ended the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
Resolution 1701 called for the Lebanese armed forces and UN peacekeepers to be the only military presence between the border with Israel and the Litani River, about 30km (18 miles) to the north.
On Monday, Hochstein said Resolution 1701 would be the “basis” to end the war, but he underscored the need to enforce it, which would push Hezbollah fighters away from the Israeli border.
He said the US is working with Lebanon and Israel to find a “formula” that would end the conflict “once and for all” to usher in a “new era of prosperity”.
Hochstein added that additional steps must be taken to make sure that 1701 is enforced “fairly, accurately, transparently, so that everybody knows the path that we’re on”.
Israeli proposal
It is not clear whether Hezbollah would agree to withdraw its forces from border areas. The 2006 resolution, which ended hostilities between the Lebanese group and Israel, did not include a meaningful enforcement mechanism.
The peacekeeping UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is mostly an observer mission tasked with supporting the Lebanese army. Its mandate allows it only to report military activity, not confront Hezbollah.
And the ill-equipped Lebanese army, which deployed across southern Lebanon after the 2006 war, historically does not take on Hezbollah, a group that is represented in the government in Beirut.
The US news website Axios reported on Sunday that Israel handed its conditions for ending the war to Hochstein last week, demanding that the Israeli military be allowed “active enforcement” in Lebanon and the freedom to operate in the country’s airspace.
The Israeli conditions, if confirmed, would be in violation of Resolution 1701, which calls for “full respect” of the Israeli-Lebanese temporary border, known as the Blue Line.
Lebanon has recorded thousands of breaches of 1701 by Israel over the years, including frequent violations of its territorial waters and airspace.
Hochstein refused to comment on the purported Israeli proposal on Monday, saying he is trying to conduct diplomacy “in private”.
Berri, a close Hezbollah ally, was quoted by Lebanese news outlets as saying the meeting with Hochstein was good but results are what matter.
Hezbollah started attacking Israeli army positions in northern Israel in October last year in a campaign that it said was aimed at pressuring the Israeli government to end its war on Gaza.
The violence had displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Blue Line and had been largely contained to the border region.
But last month, Israel launched a large bombing campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, displacing more than 1.2 million people and turning large areas of the country, including part of the southern Beirut suburbs, into rubble.
The US has fully backed the Israeli campaign despite the targeting of civilian homes and residential buildings across the country.
‘Saddened’
On Monday, Hochstein, who previously served in the Israeli military, said he was “saddened” by the devastation in Lebanon.
The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance every year, and President Joe Biden has approved an additional $14bn in aid to help fund the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which UN experts have described as a genocide.
Washington has also refused to condemn apparent Israeli abuses in Lebanon, including the ongoing destruction of border towns in the south of the country.
Hochstein appeared to blame Hezbollah for the war because the group linked a ceasefire in Lebanon to ending the Israeli war on Gaza.
“I want to be very, very clear: Tying Lebanon’s future to other conflicts in the region was not and is not in the interest of the Lebanese people,” Hochstein told reporters.
While Hezbollah has backed negotiations led by Berri from the Lebanese side, it promised this month not to allow residents of border towns in Israel to return to their homes until the end of the war on Gaza and Lebanon.
Hezbollah has suffered heavy blows in recent weeks, including the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as well as several of its top political and military officials.
Still, the group has been able to continue to conduct attacks against invading Israeli forces while sustaining steady rocket fire that has reached deep inside Israel.
Hezbollah said it has killed and injured hundreds of Israeli soldiers in recent weeks.
In a daring operation on Saturday, Hezbollah targeted the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, with a drone.
On Monday, Hezbollah claimed dozens of attacks against Israeli forces, including rocket launches against their positions in northern Israel and Syria’s occupied Golan Heights.
