BEIRUT: A US envoy is due in Lebanon on Tuesday (Nov 19) for talks on a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, with Beirut positive about Washington’s efforts to end the war but seeking changes to a proposal on how to monitor a truce, a senior Lebanese official said.
The trip by White House envoy Amos Hochstein, whose visit was flagged by several Lebanese sources but has yet to be confirmed by Washington, is expected to build on a US ceasefire proposal submitted to Lebanon last week.
Washington’s ceasefire diplomacy has come back into focus as its ally Israel has stepped up its offensive. Israeli strikes in two Beirut neighbourhoods killed six people including at least one senior Hezbollah official on Sunday, the first time Israel has struck central areas of the capital in more than five weeks.
World powers say a Lebanon ceasefire must be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Its terms require the Iran-backed Hezbollah to move weapons and fighters north of the Litani river, about 30km north of the Israeli border.
Israel has dealt Hezbollah big blows since launching an offensive against the group in September, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and pounding Lebanon with airstrikes. Hezbollah has kept up rocket fire into northern Israel, where sirens sounded again on Monday.
Hezbollah has submitted notes on the US ceasefire proposal to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that would not obstruct a truce, the senior Lebanese official said.
But Lebanon was opposed to a proposal to expand a ceasefire monitoring committee to include possibly Germany or Britain.
“If, for example, a Hezbollah facility appears, who will dismantle it?” the official said, adding: “The Lebanese side wants the (Lebanese) army to deal with this.”
Israel has long complained that Resolution 1701 was never implemented properly, noting the presence of Hezbollah fighters and weapons along the border. Lebanon says Israel violated it by regularly flying in its airspace.
A second Lebanese official said the US proposal contained some points that have been agreed upon and others that need discussion with Hochstein on Tuesday. Both Lebanese officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to diplomatic sensitivities.
Lebanese Labour Minister Mustafa Bayram, who was named to the cabinet by Hezbollah, said Berri told him the atmosphere was positive but cautioned that a deal was not yet done.
“Then attention will turn to the Israeli position: does it want a ceasefire … or to continue in its crimes,” Bayram said after the meeting, according to a statement from Berri’s office.
Berri, endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate, told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper on Friday that the Lebanese side wouldn’t accept the “proposed alternative (monitoring) mechanism”, adding there was an existing mechanism that could be activated, referring to UN peacekeepers.
He said the proposal did not include freedom for Israel to act should Hezbollah violate any agreement – an Israeli demand rejected by Lebanon.
HEZBOLLAH MEDIA OFFICIAL KILLED
Israel has intensified airstrikes over the last week, hitting Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs on a daily basis and widening raids to central areas on Sunday, killing Hezbollah media official Mohammad Afif.
Residents of Mar Elias, one of the neighbourhoods targeted, surveyed the damage on Monday morning. Hussein Zahwa said he had rescued his seven-year-old daughter as she struggled to breathe. “I went up and took them from among the rubble,” he said.
Israel launched its offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah. Its declared goal is to dismantle Hezbollah’s capabilities to secure the return of tens of thousands of Israelis who evacuated the north due to rockets fired by Hezbollah in solidarity with its ally Hamas as the Gaza war began more than a year ago.
Israel’s campaign has killed 3,481 people in Lebanon since hostilities began, most since late September, Lebanese authorities say, and uprooted more than a million people. The figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Hezbollah strikes have killed 43 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while 73 soldiers have been killed in strikes in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli figures.