From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Blinken says Lebanon ceasefire will be boon to efforts for ending Gaza war
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the ceasefire deal being finalized between Israel and Lebanon will boost efforts to secure an end to the war in Gaza.
“One of the things that Hamas has sought from day one is to get others in on the fight, to create multiple fronts… and as long as it thought that was possible, that’s one of the reasons it has held back from doing what is necessary to end the conflict,” Blinken says in remarks to reporters after meeting counterparts at the G7 in Italy, “If it sees that the cavalry is not on the way, that may incentivize it to do what it needs to do to end this conflict.”
He says “we are in the final stages” of the Lebanon ceasefire negotiations, stressing that the agreement on the table will save lives in Lebanon and Israel and allow civilians near the Blue Line to return to their homes, while deescalating tensions in the region more broadly.
The Biden administration is committed to working with the Trump transition team in order to ensure the implementation of the Lebanon deal, he says when asked.
According to Blinken, the ceasefire deal ensures the “effective implementation” of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was passed in 2006 to end the Second Lebanon War by forcing Hezbollah to disarm and retreat beyond the Litani River, 18 miles north of the border with Israel. That resolution has gone unimplemented from the get-go, with Hezbollah violations allowed to go unchecked.
The new deal being finalized envisions the Lebanese army deploying into southern Lebanon along with the UNIFIL observer mission and a new oversight mechanism, Blinken says.
Pressed on whether the US has given Israel guarantees that it will support IDF actions against potential Hezbollah violations, Blinken avoids responding directly but says, “Israel will always have the right to deal with challenges or threats to its security, just as any country has that right.”
Blinken also says that G7 and Arab counterparts are in agreement on working to bring the war in Gaza to an end through the release of all hostages and the surging of humanitarian aid into the Strip, “now that Israel has achieved its strategic goals in the wake of October 7.”
“We agreed with our Arab partners that we cannot end the conflict without a plan for the post conflict — something that we’re working on intensely as we speak,” he says. The US has long expressed frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to advance this effort and for rejecting initiatives involving the Palestinian Authority, which would unlock the support of Arab allies in the region, which Jerusalem seeks.
Blinken says his G7 counterparts “reiterated deep concern with Iran’s nuclear activities and continued failure to cooperate fully with the IAEA,” the UN nuclear watchdog.
