The U.S. handed a ceasefire proposal to Lebanon on Thursday that could end the Third Lebanon War, which has raged between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror organization and the State of Israel for nearly two months.
Hezbollah launched the war by firing rockets, missiles, and drones at Israeli communities in October 2023, in solidarity with the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7. Israel launched more aggressive responses after diplomatic efforts to mediate between the two sides failed. Israel has been more successful than many observers anticipated, wiping out Hezbollah’s command structure and much of its weaponry and tunnel system near the border.
Reuters reported:
The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri on Thursday to halt fighting between armed group Hezbollah and Israel, two political sources told Reuters, without revealing details.
The U.S. has sought to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, but efforts have yet to yield a result. Israel launched a stepped-up air and ground campaign in late September after cross-border clashes in parallel with the Gaza war.
The Times of Israel added:
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot, and told him that there was “progress” in attempts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon that would allow Israelis to return to their homes safely.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Sa’ar stressed that implementation of any agreement must be ensured, including keeping Hezbollah away from the border and preventing it from rearming through Syria.
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Also Thursday, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said Israel was closer to reaching a ceasefire agreement than it had been since the start of the war, but that it must retain freedom to act inside Lebanon should any deal be violated.
President-elect Donald Trump promised during the campaign to end the war in Lebanon, and his unofficial envoy to the Arab world, Massad Boulous, who is also Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, has reportedly said that the fighting in Lebanon ought to end before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Lebanon’s Christian and Druze communities have become more vocal in their opposition to Hezbollah, which is Shia-dominated, since the war intensified in September.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
