From Lebanon, US Envoy To Israel Discuss Ceasefire With Hezbollah

Lebanese/Refuge UNICEF/Fouad Choufany

JAKARTA - United States envoy Amos Hochstein will travel to Israel to try to ensure a ceasefire that ended the war with the Lebanese Hezbollah group after declaring additional progress in talks in Beirut.

Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Tuesday, seeking to reach a ceasefire agreement after the Lebanese government and Hezbollah approved a US ceasefire proposal.

"Today's meeting was a continuation of yesterday's meeting and resulted in additional progress," Hochstein said.

"So I'll be traveling from here in a few hours to Israel to try to solve this problem if we can," Hochstein continued.

The diplomacy aims to end the conflict that has caused major destruction in Lebanon since Israel launched an attack on Hezbollah in September, launched airstrikes across the country and sent troops.

Israel said its goal was to secure the return of tens of thousands of people evacuated from the north as a result of the Hezbollah rocket attack, which opened fire to support Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Hezbollah, who has yet to recover from the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, continues to launch rocket attacks on Israel, targeting Tel Aviv this week.

While its fighters are fighting Israeli forces in the southern region.

Although diplomacy to end Gaza's war has largely stalled, the Joe Biden administration aims to reach a ceasefire in a parallel conflict in Lebanon before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

"We will work closely with future governments. We will discuss this with them. They will fully know what we are doing," Hochstein said.

Diplomats aim to restore the ceasefire based on UN resolutions that ended the previous conflict in 2006.

Israel says it wants the freedom to act against Hezbollah if deemed necessary, even after the ceasefire is agreed. Lebanon rejects this.

"The condition for any diplomatic settlement in Lebanon is to maintain our intelligence capabilities and the right (Israeli military) to act and protect Israeli citizens from Hezbollah," Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz told intelligence officers at a meeting on Wednesday, November 20.