US official: Netanyahu asked to secure Lebanon ceasefire in run-up to US elections

Days before the US presidential election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US special envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein to come meet him in Jerusalem where the premier told the Biden aide that there was a window to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, says a senior US official briefing reporters about the recently announced agreement.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a Netanyahu confidant, reportedly told Trump aides that Israel wanted to secure a ceasefire with Hezbollah as a “gift” to the president-elect before he enters office on January 20, though Israeli officials have denied as much.

In their meeting earlier this month, Hochstein told Netanyahu that if both sides were serious, he was prepared to launch another round of intensive negotiations over the coming weeks. Netanyahu agreed, the US official recalls.

Once the sides began to make progress, Hochstein briefed members of the Trump transition’s national security team on the broad tenants of the deal, telling them that there was an increasing likelihood that a ceasefire would be reached, the US official says.

Hochstein conducted a follow-up call with Trump’s aides in the last 24 to 48 hours as the deal was being finalized, and the president-elect’s team seemed supportive of the effort, the senior US official says.