French ceasefire plan for Lebanon said to require Lebanese recognition of Israel

France has drawn up a proposal to end the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah that would require Lebanon’s government to recognize Israel, Axios reports.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the news site says Lebanon’s government has accepted the proposal as a basis for talks, while the US and Israel are both reviewing it.

According to the report, the French plan calls for Jerusalem and Beirut to hold direct talks — which Paris and Washington would back — on a “political declaration” that the sides would agree upon within a month. The sources quoted by Axios say France wants the negotiations to be held in Paris, with the talks initially featuring senior diplomats before advancing to senior political figures.

Outlining the plan, the report says that along with recognizing Israel, Lebanon would vow to respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, while both countries would also stress their commitment to the UN Security Council resolution ending the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the ceasefire deal reached in November 2024 after more than a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.

Lebanon’s government would also reportedly be committed under the plan to preventing any attacks on Israel from Lebanese territory and to disarming Hezbollah and banning the terror group’s military activity. Meanwhile, Israeli forces would withdraw from areas captured during the current war within a month, while the Lebanese army redeploys in Southern Lebanon, with UNIFIL and a group of countries selected by the UN Security Council tasked with verifying Hezbollah is disarmed.

The report says that Lebanon will be required to declare its willingness to hold talks with Israel on a permanent non-aggression pact, with an agreement ending the formal state of war between the countries since the Jewish state’s founding in 1948 to be signed in two months.

Once the deal is signed, the IDF would then pull back from the five positions it has held in southern Lebanon since 2024. Axios reported the last stage of the French proposal calls for demarcating the Israel-Lebanon and Lebanon-Syria borders by year’s end.