US leads call for Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire

The Biden administration, along with partners in Europe and the Middle East, are calling for Israel and Hezbollah to accept a 21-day cease-fire, releasing a joint statement Wednesday night calling the escalation of war “intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation.”

The statement was signed by the U.S., Australia, Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar. 

The 21-day proposed truce is aimed at providing space for negotiations for a potential resolution to the fighting across the Israeli-Lebanese border, that were triggered on Oct. 8 last year when Hezbollah began launching attacks in Israel following Hamas’s terrorist attack in southern Israel, a senior administration official said in a call with reporters Wednesday night. 

“It is time to conclude a diplomatic settlement that enables civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes in safety,” the statement read. 

“We are then prepared to fully support all diplomatic efforts to conclude an agreement between Lebanon and Israel within this period, building on efforts over the last months, that ends this crisis altogether.”

The 10-nation and E.U. call for a cease-fire comes as Israel has signaled preparations for a ground-invasion into southern Lebanon to halt attacks from Hezbollah that have persisted over nearly a year. Tensions ratched up last week after a brazen, alleged, Israeli operation exploded thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies injuring Hezbollah’s rank and file, and carrying out targeted attacks against senior commanders. 

Hezbollah responded on Wednesday with the shooting of a ballistic missile reaching Tel Aviv, demonstrating some of the range of its arsenal of an estimated 150,000 rockets. Thousands of Lebanese have left the southern part of the country as Israel carried out dozens of air strikes over the past few days, with an estimated 500 people reported killed on the Lebanese side.

A senior Biden administration official said that it was holding Lebanon as responsible for the actions of Hezbollah, in urging the acceptance of the cease-fire. 

“We negotiate and we deal with the sovereign state of Lebanon with its leadership. We have been doing that for months. For the last 48 hours, we have been doing that non stop, all day and night,” the official said. “They are responsible, in speaking for the state of Lebanon and for everything that happens on that side of the border. Who they negotiate with and deal with, as far as the non-state actors in Lebanon, that is, I think they’re aware of the responsibility that they have on behalf of the country, for the state.”

Negotiations will seek to reach a comprehensive agreement along the Blue Line, the boundary between Israel and Lebanon, that allows for residents in northern Israel and southern Lebanon to return to their homes, a senior Biden administration official said in a call with reporters.

“The objective is to conclude that agreement in the 21-day period,” the official said. 

The official added, “Our expectation is that when the Government of Lebanon and when the government of Israel both accept this, this will be implemented as a ceasefire on both sides of the Blue Line for the period of 21 days.”

U.S. officials said they “hope” that the Israel-Hezbollah truce will open up diplomatic space for negotiations on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip – a three phase deal that the Biden administration has yet to achieve. The proposed cease-fire is aimed at getting Hamas to release an estimated 100 hostages – alive and dead – and scale up humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Strip with a halt in Israeli military operations. 

“We hope that it might also open up diplomatic space as well to galvanize efforts on the very important, primary effort we have to bring the hostages home,” the senior official said. 

“So that references the three phase deal that we’ve been working on. But this is an important breakthrough on the Lebanon side, given all that has gone on there, particularly over the last few weeks. But you know, we will try to use the space that provides widely on all on all fronts.”