U.S. Particular Envoy Amos Hochstein meets with Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, August 14, 2024. | Photograph credit score: Reuters
Visiting US envoy to Gaza Amos Hochstein warned on Wednesday (August 14) that point is working out for a ceasefire in Gaza that would additionally assist finish 10 months of cross-border exchanges between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel.
His journey to Lebanon comes a day earlier than ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are set to renew, with prime diplomats scrambling to keep away from all-out warfare after Iran and Hezbollah vowed revenge for current high-profile killings.
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Mr. Hochstein advised a information convention in Beirut that he and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, mentioned “the framework settlement that’s on the desk for a ceasefire in Gaza, and he and I agreed that there isn’t a extra time to waste and that there are not any extra legitimate excuses from both aspect for additional delay.”
“The settlement would additionally assist to facilitate a diplomatic answer right here in Lebanon and that might forestall the outbreak of a wider warfare,” Hochstein mentioned.
“We have to benefit from this window for diplomatic motion and diplomatic options. That point is now.”
Late final month, an Israeli strike killed prime Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr within the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the group, simply hours earlier than Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in a strike blamed on Israel.
“The longer that goes by with out tensions escalating… the extra the probabilities and potentialities of accidents, errors, unintentional targets being reached that would simply trigger an escalation that spirals uncontrolled improve,” Hochstein warned.
An “achievable” diplomatic answer
“Right here in Lebanon, we imagine that we will finish the battle now, at this time. We acknowledge that there are those that wish to hyperlink it to different conflicts. That’s not our place,” Hochstein mentioned.
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“We proceed to imagine {that a} diplomatic answer is feasible as a result of we proceed to imagine that nobody actually desires a full-scale warfare between Lebanon and Israel,” Hochstein mentioned.
Hezbollah has repeatedly mentioned it would solely finish hostilities as soon as a ceasefire settlement is reached in Gaza.
The US envoy additionally met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who warned in an announcement that “Israeli intransigence threatens efforts to cease the warfare.”
Final week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah mentioned his group and Iran have been “obliged to reply” to Israel “regardless of the penalties” after the killings of Shukr and Haniyeh.
On Tuesday, the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar revealed a report titled “Don’t welcome the Israeli mediator,” accusing Hochstein of getting given assurances earlier than Shukr’s killing that Israel wouldn’t assault Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hamas’s ally has exchanged hearth nearly each day with the Israeli army because the Palestinian militant group’s assault on Israel on October 7 that sparked the Gaza warfare.
The violence has killed some 568 folks in Lebanon, largely fighters but additionally at the very least 118 civilians, based on an AFP tally.
On the Israeli aspect, together with within the annexed Golan Heights, 22 troopers and 26 civilians have been killed, based on military figures.
