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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
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Lebanon ceasefire talks intensify as Hezbollah considers new US-Israeli
proposal
By Tamara Qiblawi, Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood, CNN
Updated:
1:18 PM EST, Sat November 16, 2024
Source: CNN
Hezbollah is considering a US-Israeli ceasefire proposal, sources told
CNN, as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict between Israel and the
Lebanese militant group intensify.
The US ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, relayed the proposal to the
Lebanese government on Thursday night, a Lebanese official familiar
with the discussions told CNN.
Authorities are “optimistic” that Hezbollah will agree to the terms
of the agreement and expect to submit an official response to the
latest proposal next Monday, the official said.
“Diplomatic efforts are on fire now,” the source said.
On Saturday evening, another Lebanese source told CNN extensive
discussions were taking place in Beirut among political officials
regarding the American initiative.
Israel launched a major offensive in Lebanon in mid-September following
months of tit-for-tat border attacks which started when Hezbollah
attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza.
Returning 60,000 civilians to their homes in northern Israel has become
a political imperative for the country’s leadership.
The offensive dealt devastating blows to Hezbollah’s leadership and
its vast arsenal, and, according to the Lebanese health ministry,
killed hundreds of civilians and displaced more than a million people.
Even with ceasefire talks underway, Israeli strikes have escalated this
week, intensifying its bombardment and ground operation. Most of the
targets have been Shia-majority areas where Hezbollah wields influence,
but Israel has also struck buildings housing displaced families well
outside areas of the militant group’s dominance.
Israel’s strikes across Lebanon killed at least 43 people on
Thursday, including eight civil defense workers, according to
Lebanon’s health ministry and civil defense directorate.
The General Directorate of the Civil Defense said on X that an Israeli
strike destroyed their headquarters in the village of Douris near
Baalbek. The civil defense building was hit “while a number of
workers were inside, ready to receive calls for relief and immediate
intervention to assist citizens,” the directorate said in a
statement.
The latest proposal, which Ambassador Johnson outlined to Lebanon’s
Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri – who is close to Hezbollah – is
the first to be submitted by the US and Israel since a temporary
ceasefire was negotiated in late September. Those efforts were upended
when Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a major bombing
attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Another Lebanese official familiar with the discussions around the
ceasefire told CNN that US President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed
the ongoing negotiations, which have been spearheaded by the Biden
administration’s special envoy to Lebanon, Amos Hochstein.
Sticking points
US officials have continued to pursue a ceasefire deal between Israel
and Hezbollah in Lebanon and people close to Donald Trump have signaled
to administration officials that he would not seek to upend the ongoing
efforts, US and Israeli sources said.
Still there are questions about when the deal gets finished: current US
official say it is close to being concluded, but some Israeli officials
have told Trump and those close to him that they intend to deliver the
incoming Trump team with the ceasefire as an early gift. Other Israeli
officials, however, have signaled to the Biden administration that they
want to move ahead with a deal sooner rather than later.
CNN has approached the Trump campaign for comment.
The Logan Act prevents Trump – before he is officially president –
from engaging in US policy, and specifically from negotiating with
foreign governments which have disputes with the US. Members of
Trump’s transition team are cognizant of this law.
Still some current US officials point out that Trump likely does not
want to be seen as putting pressure on Israel so soon after he takes
office, so there is a mutual incentive to resolve the situation on
Israel’s northern border sooner rather than later. Two people
involved in the discussions said the main sticking point still being
how to enforce a Hezbollah retreat from southern Lebanon and whether
the Lebanese Armed Forces will be prepared to take on a more active
role there.
The US-Israeli proposal aims to achieve a 60-day cessation of
hostilities and is being portrayed as the basis of a lasting ceasefire,
according to the first Lebanese official, adding that terms lie within
the parameters of UN Resolution 1701 which ended the Lebanon-Israel war
of 2006. The resolution stipulates that the only armed groups in the
area south of Lebanon’s Litani River should be the Lebanese army and
UN peacekeeping forces.
The proposal also involves Israeli ground forces, operating in south
Lebanon since late September, retreat to behind the internationally
recognized boundary between the two countries.
“The points mainly focus on the mechanism of implementation and on
the role of the Lebanese Armed Forces in implementing 1701in the south
of the Litani River,” the official said, adding that it also deals
with smuggling routes through the country’s international borders.
The US embassy in Beirut declined CNN’s request for comment on the
ceasefire negotiations.
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