Lebanon
\nUnited States envoy Amos Hochstein says Washington is looking to end the war in Lebanon \u201cas soon as possible\u201d, stressing that the US is seeking a lasting resolution to the crisis without providing many details about the diplomatic push.
\nAfter holding talks in Beirut on Monday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Hochstein suggested that ceasefire efforts are focused on the implementation of a United Nations Security Council resolution that ended the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
\nResolution 1701 called for the Lebanese armed forces and UN peacekeepers to be the only military presence between the border with Israel and the Litani River, about 30km (18 miles) to the north.
\nOn Monday, Hochstein said Resolution 1701 would be the \u201cbasis\u201d to end the war, but he underscored the need to enforce it, which would push Hezbollah fighters away from the Israeli border.
\nHe said the US is working with Lebanon and Israel to find a \u201cformula\u201d that would end the conflict \u201conce and for all\u201d to usher in a \u201cnew era of prosperity\u201d.
\nHochstein added that additional steps must be taken to make sure that 1701 is enforced \u201cfairly, accurately, transparently, so that everybody knows the path that we\u2019re on\u201d.
\nIsraeli proposal
\nIt is not clear whether Hezbollah would agree to withdraw its forces from border areas. The 2006 resolution, which ended hostilities between the Lebanese group and Israel, did not include a meaningful enforcement mechanism.
\nThe peacekeeping UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is mostly an observer mission tasked with supporting the Lebanese army. Its mandate allows it only to report military activity, not confront Hezbollah.
\nAnd the ill-equipped Lebanese army, which deployed across southern Lebanon after the 2006 war, historically does not take on Hezbollah, a group that is represented in the government in Beirut.
\nThe US news website Axios reported on Sunday that Israel handed its conditions for ending the war to Hochstein last week, demanding that the Israeli military be allowed \u201cactive enforcement\u201d in Lebanon and the freedom to operate in the country\u2019s airspace.
\nThe Israeli conditions, if confirmed, would be in violation of Resolution 1701, which calls for \u201cfull respect\u201d of the Israeli-Lebanese temporary border, known as the Blue Line.
\nLebanon has recorded thousands of breaches of 1701 by Israel over the years, including frequent violations of its territorial waters and airspace.
\nHochstein refused to comment on the purported Israeli proposal on Monday, saying he is trying to conduct diplomacy \u201cin private\u201d.
\nBerri, a close Hezbollah ally, was quoted by Lebanese news outlets as saying the meeting with Hochstein was good but results are what matter.
\nHezbollah started attacking Israeli army positions in northern Israel in October last year in a campaign that it said was aimed at pressuring the Israeli government to end its war on Gaza.
\nThe violence had displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Blue Line and had been largely contained to the border region.
\nBut last month, Israel launched a large bombing campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, displacing more than 1.2 million people and turning large areas of the country, including part of the southern Beirut suburbs, into rubble.
\nThe US has fully backed the Israeli campaign despite the targeting of civilian homes and residential buildings across the country.
\n\u2018Saddened\u2019
\nOn Monday, Hochstein, who previously served in the Israeli military, said he was \u201csaddened\u201d by the devastation in Lebanon.
\nThe US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance every year, and President Joe Biden has approved an additional $14bn in aid to help fund the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which UN experts have described as a genocide.
\nWashington has also refused to condemn apparent Israeli abuses in Lebanon, including the ongoing destruction of border towns in the south of the country.
\nHochstein appeared to blame Hezbollah for the war because the group linked a ceasefire in Lebanon to ending the Israeli war on Gaza.
\n\u201cI want to be very, very clear: Tying Lebanon\u2019s future to other conflicts in the region was not and is not in the interest of the Lebanese people,\u201d Hochstein told reporters.
\nWhile Hezbollah has backed negotiations led by Berri from the Lebanese side, it promised this month not to allow residents of border towns in Israel to return to their homes until the end of the war on Gaza and Lebanon.
\nHezbollah has suffered heavy blows in recent weeks, including the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as well as several of its top political and military officials.
\nStill, the group has been able to continue to conduct attacks against invading Israeli forces while sustaining steady rocket fire that has reached deep inside Israel.
\nHezbollah said it has killed and injured hundreds of Israeli soldiers in recent weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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