US mediators jet to Israel for talks on 60-day truce with Hezbollah

Plan envisions ceasefire leading to boosted implementation of UN Resolution 1701, but reports suggest Jerusalem seeking ability to act in southern Lebanon should it be threatened

Left: White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, April 18, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images via AFP); Right: US envoy Amos Hochstein, October 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Left: White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, April 18, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images via AFP); Right: US envoy Amos Hochstein, October 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Mediators are working on a proposal to halt hostilities between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group, starting with a 60-day ceasefire, two sources said on Wednesday, as Washington dispatched senior diplomats to the region for talks on ending the fighting.

The sources – a person briefed on the talks and a senior diplomat working on Lebanon – told Reuters the two-month period would be used to finalize mechanisms for full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. Israel says the measure, adopted in 2006 to keep southern Lebanon free of arms outside state control, has gone unenforced for years, necessitating its military offensive aimed at disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah and pushing it away from the border.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen confirmed Wednesday that Israel’s security cabinet was discussing the terms of a possible truce in southern Lebanon, after Channel 12 news reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with ministers on Tuesday evening over Israel’s demands in return for a 60-day truce.

“There are discussions. I think it will still take time,” Cohen told the Kan public broadcaster.

US and Israeli officials confirmed to The Times of Israel that US President Joe Biden’s Middle East adviser Brett McGurk and special envoy Amos Hochstein were headed to the region for talks Thursday on reaching a ceasefire.

An Israeli official said the discussions would revolve around a potential ceasefire, confirming a report in Axios news that cited sources saying a deal could be clinched within weeks.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah that targeted an area in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on October 30, 2024. (AFP)

The swirling reports of possible movement toward a ceasefire came as Israel appeared to expand its offensive against Hezbollah, warning residents of the northeastern Lebanese city of Baalbek to evacuate hours before airstrikes hit the area for the first time since fighting began. On Tuesday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that tanks were pushing toward the town of Khiam, some six kilometers (four miles) from the border, marking the deepest incursion since the ground offensive began on October 1.

Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah last month to end a year of its cross-border rocket fire — launched in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel — that has made part of northern Israel uninhabitable. Jerusalem says it aims to make it safe for 60,000 people evacuated from their homes near the border to return, accusing the UN and Lebanon of allowing Hezbollah unfettered access to the border with Israel, where it had plotted a surprise invasion of Upper Galilee communities.

Hezbollah had insisted that it would only halt rocket fire once Israel ended its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, but Axios reported that Israeli and US officials believe the group is finally willing to disconnect itself from Hamas in Gaza after taking major blows, including the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Talks toward ending the fighting have largely centered on bolstering Resolution 1701, which Lebanon and Hezbollah also accuse Israel of violating due to surveillance drone overflights.

“We’d like to reiterate that we seek a diplomatic resolution that fully implements 1701 and gets both Israeli and Lebanese citizens back to their homes on both sides of the border,” said Sama Habib, spokesperson at the US embassy in Beirut, when asked about the reported proposal.

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, center, arrives to meet with Hezbollah-allied Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, October 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

The decision to dispatch Hochstein and McGurk to the region could signal progress in the talks after weeks of little movement.

The Kan public broadcaster reported that Israel had requested a visit from Hochstein last week, but was rebuffed by the US, which indicated he would only travel once both sides showed serious will to reach a truce.

According to Axios, the decision to send the pair was only made following the Tuesday night cabinet meeting.

Hochstein, who is working on the new ceasefire proposal, told reporters in Beirut earlier this month that better mechanisms for enforcement were needed as neither Israel nor Lebanon had fully implemented the resolution.

The two sources told Reuters that the 60-day truce idea had replaced a proposal last month by the United States and other countries that envisioned a ceasefire for 21 days as a prelude to 1701 coming into full force.

Both, however, cautioned that the deal could still fall through.

“There is an earnest push to get to a ceasefire, but it is still hard to get it to materialize,” the diplomat said.

The person briefed on the talks said Israel was still pushing for the ability to carry out “direct enforcement” of the truce via airstrikes or other military operations against Hezbollah if it was violating the deal.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (R) meets US special envoy Amos Hochstein in Washington DC, June 24, 2024 (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

According to Channel 12 news, Israel is seeking a reinforced version of Resolution 1701 that allows Israel to intervene if it feels its security threatened.

The channel reported that Israel’s demands for a ceasefire include an Hezbollah pullback north of the Litani river, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Israeli frontier, the Lebanese army’s deployment along the border, an international intervention mechanism to enforce the truce and a guarantee that Israel will maintain freedom of action in case of threats.

Cohen, a former intelligence minister, said Israel’s military successes against the group had given it the upper hand in talks.

“Thanks to all the army’s operations these past months and particularly these past weeks… Israel can come in a position of strength after the entire Hezbollah leadership was eliminated and over 2,000 Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures were hit,” he said.

Lebanon had not yet been formally briefed on the proposal and could not comment on its details, Lebanese officials said.

In a pre-recorded speech published Wednesday, Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Qassem said he would continue his predecessor’s work, including fighting Israel.

Qassem, speaking for the first time since being appointed Nasrallah’s successor, denied that the group was “fighting on anyone’s behalf,” adding that Iran “supports us but doesn’t want anything” in return.

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