Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
United States Special Envoy Amos Hochstein stated on November 19 that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon was “within our grasp.”
Speaking from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Hochstein said he had held “very constructive talks” with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group’s behalf.
“I came back [to Lebanon] because we have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end,” Hochstein said at a press conference after the meeting with Berri, which lasted for around two hours, adding that gaps between the sides had been “significantly narrowed” in the talks.
“It’s ultimately the decisions of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict … It is now within our grasp,” he continued.
From his side, Berri said that the “situation is good in principle,” though some unresolved technical details remain. The Lebanese side was now waiting to hear the results of Hochstein’s talks with Israeli officials, he told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
“We are waiting for what he will bring from there,” said Berri.
The speaker said that Hochstein told him that the U.S. had already coordinated with the Israelis about the ceasefire proposal.
The ceasefire proposal on the table calls for the withdrawal of both the Israeli military and Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, where an existing United Nations buffer zone would be bolstered by thousands of additional international peacekeepers and Lebanese troops.
The proposal is mainly built around the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a previous war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
The resolution requires Hezbollah to have no armed presence in the area between the Lebanese-Israeli border and the Litani River, which runs for around 30 kilometers. It also forbids Israel from violating Lebanese airspace.
The confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah first broke out after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, with the group launching attacks in support of the Palestinian enclave.
Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon starting from September 17 and on September 27 it assassinated the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nassrallah. On September 30, Israel complexacted the situation even more by launching a ground operation in southern Lebanon.
Overall, the confrontation, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 110 people in Israel and left well over 3,500 dead on the Lebanese side, appears to be nearing its end.
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who is hochstein fooling? other bitchsteins in the west maybe