Lebanon ceasefire talks intensify as Hezbollah considers new US-Israeli proposal

By Tamara Qiblawi, Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood, CNN

(CNN) — Hezbollah is considering a US-Israeli ceasefire proposal, sources told CNN, as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group intensify.

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, relayed the proposal to the Lebanese government on Thursday night, a Lebanese official familiar with the discussions told CNN.

Authorities are “optimistic” that Hezbollah will agree to the terms of the agreement and expect to submit an official response to the latest proposal next Monday, the official said.

“Diplomatic efforts are on fire now,” the source said.

On Saturday evening, another Lebanese source told CNN extensive discussions were taking place in Beirut among political officials regarding the American initiative.

Israel launched a major offensive in Lebanon in mid-September following months of tit-for-tat border attacks which started when Hezbollah attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza. Returning 60,000 civilians to their homes in northern Israel has become a political imperative for the country’s leadership.

The offensive dealt devastating blows to Hezbollah’s leadership and its vast arsenal, and, according to the Lebanese health ministry, killed hundreds of civilians and displaced more than a million people.

Even with ceasefire talks underway, Israeli strikes have escalated this week, intensifying its bombardment and ground operation. Most of the targets have been Shia-majority areas where Hezbollah wields influence, but Israel has also struck buildings housing displaced families well outside areas of the militant group’s dominance.

Israel’s strikes across Lebanon killed at least 43 people on Thursday, including eight civil defense workers, according to Lebanon’s health ministry and civil defense directorate.

The General Directorate of the Civil Defense said on X that an Israeli strike destroyed their headquarters in the village of Douris near Baalbek. The civil defense building was hit “while a number of workers were inside, ready to receive calls for relief and immediate intervention to assist citizens,” the directorate said in a statement.

The latest proposal, which Ambassador Johnson outlined to Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri – who is close to Hezbollah – is the first to be submitted by the US and Israel since a temporary ceasefire was negotiated in late September. Those efforts were upended when Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a major bombing attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Another Lebanese official familiar with the discussions around the ceasefire told CNN that US President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed the ongoing negotiations, which have been spearheaded by the Biden administration’s special envoy to Lebanon, Amos Hochstein.

Sticking points

US officials have continued to pursue a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and people close to Donald Trump have signaled to administration officials that he would not seek to upend the ongoing efforts, US and Israeli sources said.

Still there are questions about when the deal gets finished: current US official say it is close to being concluded, but some Israeli officials have told Trump and those close to him that they intend to deliver the incoming Trump team with the ceasefire as an early gift. Other Israeli officials, however, have signaled to the Biden administration that they want to move ahead with a deal sooner rather than later.

CNN has approached the Trump campaign for comment.

The Logan Act prevents Trump – before he is officially president – from engaging in US policy, and specifically from negotiating with foreign governments which have disputes with the US. Members of Trump’s transition team are cognizant of this law.

Still some current US officials point out that Trump likely does not want to be seen as putting pressure on Israel so soon after he takes office, so there is a mutual incentive to resolve the situation on Israel’s northern border sooner rather than later. Two people involved in the discussions said the main sticking point still being how to enforce a Hezbollah retreat from southern Lebanon and whether the Lebanese Armed Forces will be prepared to take on a more active role there.

The US-Israeli proposal aims to achieve a 60-day cessation of hostilities and is being portrayed as the basis of a lasting ceasefire, according to the first Lebanese official, adding that terms lie within the parameters of UN Resolution 1701 which ended the Lebanon-Israel war of 2006. The resolution stipulates that the only armed groups in the area south of Lebanon’s Litani River should be the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping forces.

The proposal also involves Israeli ground forces, operating in south Lebanon since late September, retreat to behind the internationally recognized boundary between the two countries.

“The points mainly focus on the mechanism of implementation and on the role of the Lebanese Armed Forces in implementing 1701in the south of the Litani River,” the official said, adding that it also deals with smuggling routes through the country’s international borders.

The US embassy in Beirut declined CNN’s request for comment on the ceasefire negotiations.

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