‘We can reach an end to the conflict now, but we understand that we also need to work to an end to the conflict in Gaza.’
By JNS
U.S. presidential deputy assistant Amos Hochstein said in Beirut on Wednesday that he believes that an all-out war between Israel and Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah can be averted.
“I hope so and I believe so,” the diplomat replied when asked at a news conference whether a major confrontation between the two sides can be prevented.
The White House dispatched Hochstein to Lebanon as part of a regional effort to try to calm down rising tensions amid threats by Iran and its terrorist proxies to avenge the deaths of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders late last month.
Hochstein, a frequent visitor to Beirut during Biden’s term, arrived there on Wednesday, holding the press conference after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Amal movement, which is aligned with Hezbollah.
“We continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable because we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full-scale war between Lebanon and Israel,” Hochstein said, according to Reuters.
“Here in Lebanon, we believe we can get to the end of the conflict now. Today,” he added, saying that it should be decoupled from other regional conflicts, in apparent reference to the Swords of Iron war.
“We can reach an end to the conflict now, but we understand that we also need to work to an end to the conflict in Gaza,” he continued.
Hochstein said he spoke with Berri about the draft agreement for a Gaza ceasefire and that securing an agreement would help in enabling a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon to avoid a full-scale war.
Hezbollah has attacked northern Israel nearly every day since joining the war in support of Gaza-based Hamas on Oct. 8, killing 22 people and causing widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.
Iran’s Lebanese terrorist proxy has vowed revenge for Israel’s targeted killing of senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut on July 30. That strike was in retaliation to a Hezbollah rocket attack on July 27 that hit a soccer pitch in the Golan Druze town of Majdal Shams, killing 12 children.
Tehran has also pledged to retaliate against Israel for the July 31 assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyah in the Iranian capital, which Jerusalem has not taken responsibility for.
“He [Berri] and I agreed there is no more time to waste and there’s no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay,” Hochstein said.
Hochstein is also scheduled to meet with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib during his Beirut visit.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mikati said that talks with Arab and Western leaders have intensified because of the serious situation in the Middle East.
“We are facing uncertain opportunities for diplomacy which is now moving to prevent war and stop Israeli aggression,” Mikati said in a speech ahead of a Cabinet meeting, Reuters reported.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday vowed to push back Hezbollah terrorists north of the Litani River, in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War with the Iranian proxy.
“We deal with both removing threats and preparing all the possibilities to be able to attack wherever we decide,” said Gallant during a visit to an IDF intelligence base in northern Israel. He was briefed on the intelligence operations that enabled last month’s targeted killing of Shukr, also known as al-Hajj Mohsin.
“We are determined to fulfill our mission—we must allow the safe return of [Israel’s northern] residents to their homes, once we ensure that Hezbollah withdraws north of the Litani River,” added the defense minister.
The Biden administration has rejected Jerusalem’s demand that a diplomatic deal to end the current low-intensity conflict in the north be based on the implementation of Resolution 1701, which calls for a demilitarized zone from the U.N.-demarcated Israel-Lebanon Blue Line border to the Litani River some 18 miles to the north.
Hochstein has been jetting between Beirut, Paris and Jerusalem trying to mediate a deal that would require Hezbollah to withdraw its forces around 10 km. (6.2 miles) from the border.
According to The New York Times, Hochstein’s proposal would also require the IDF to withdraw from some of its positions along the border and see the U.S. transfer billions of dollars in reconstruction and other economic aid to the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese government.
The vast majority of Israelis agree that the safety of northern residents can only be secured by a diplomatic agreement requiring Iranian-backed Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, according to a JNS/Direct Polls survey of public opinion carried out on July 9.
Biden is also sending U.S. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk to the region in the coming days. He is expected to visit Cairo and Doha. On Thursday, the Qatari capital will host Gaza ceasefire talks which will include representatives from Israel, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar. However, earlier this week Hamas said it would not attend.
CIA Director William J. Burns is also in the region this week, ahead of the slated resumption of cease-fire talks on Thursday that Hamas had decided to boycott.
State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Tuesday that Qatar had assured Washington that it will “work to have Hamas represented” at Thursday’s talks and that the U.S. “fully expects these talks to move forward” with or without the terrorist group’s presence.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has delayed a Middle East tour aimed at securing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas while at the same time preventing a wider war in the region.
The American diplomat was scheduled to depart on Tuesday for Israel, Egypt and Qatar, but two sources said that his trip was postponed over “uncertainty about the situation.”