Biden’s advisers are visiting Israel to try to seal a deal to end the war in Lebanon, Axios reports. Israeli and US officials have said they believe that, after the blows suffered in the past two months, including the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah is finally willing to “disconnect” from Hamas in Gaza.
Hochstein visited Beirut in recent weeks and received a positive response from Lebanese officials about the possibility of moving toward a ceasefire regardless of the war in Gaza. The IDF has advised Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that now would be a good time to find a diplomatic solution to end the fighting with Hezbollah and avoid getting bogged down in a war in Lebanon, the officials said.
According to reports so far, the Israelis have said the deal under discussion is based on the re-implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war in Lebanon. The deal under consideration calls for the announcement of a ceasefire followed by a 60-day transition period, officials said.
During this transition period, Hezbollah would move its heavy weapons north of the Litani River and away from the Israeli border. The Lebanese army would deploy about 8,000 troops along the border with Israel who would join UNIFIL peacekeepers there, and IDF forces would gradually withdraw to the Israeli side of the border.
One of the Israeli demands is that the IDF be allowed to engage in “active enforcement” to ensure that Hezbollah does not rearm and rebuild its military infrastructure in areas of southern Lebanon.
Israeli officials said that while this condition is not part of the Lebanon deal, Israel wants a letter of assurance from the Biden administration that the United States would support it.
Commentators say the developments could be interesting: it is the first time that Israel really wants to end the war and have a ceasefire, so much so that it does not want to wait for the end of the US elections and hope that Trump is the wild card.
The fear is that Hezbollah, even after all these difficulties, will tell its people that the war will continue because of Gaza. As soon as the news leaked out, it seems that chaos broke out in Israel, the press was asked to keep quiet about the issue.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
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