US had drafted a 60-day truce proposal

2/11/2024 5:48

        American efforts to halt
        fighting between Israel and Hezbollah have failed after the U.S.
        drafted an "unrealistic" ceasefire proposal and Israel's
        insistence on being able to enforce a truce directly, people
        briefed on the diplomacy told Reuters.
        
        With no workable proposal on the table ahead of Tuesday's
        U.S. presidential election, the conflict could drag on for
        months, according to a Lebanese political source close to
        Hezbollah, two diplomats and a person briefed on the talks.
        
        They all spoke on condition of anonymity. The office of
        Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond to
        questions from Reuters.
        
        A U.S. official said talks between U.S. envoys and Israeli
        officials on Thursday yielded better results than expected. A
        second U.S. official described the meetings as "substantive" and
        "constructive" but said the U.S. would not negotiate in public.
        
        The State Department referred Reuters to comments by
        Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said Israel and Lebanon
        were moving toward understandings on what was required to end
        the conflict but more work was needed.
        
        Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israel have been
        exchanging fire for a year in parallel with the Gaza war but
        fighting has escalated in recent weeks. Israel says it has
        uncovered Hezbollah tunnels and weapons stores in south Lebanon,
        and that the Iran-backed group had planned an incursion into
        Israel even larger than Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
        
        The U.S. had drafted a 60-day truce proposal that would see
        Hezbollah pull back from Lebanon's southern border, both sides
        cease attacks and 10,000 Lebanese army troops deploy in the
        south, according to Israel's public broadcaster Kan.
        
        But two diplomats told Reuters the diplomatic efforts had
        failed because that draft was not viable.
        
        "It was totally unrealistic because of the onus it places on
        the Lebanese army to solve these problems," a Western diplomat
        told Reuters.
        
        A regional diplomat echoed those doubts, specifically
        pointing to elements of a "side letter" between the U.S. and
        Israel published by Kan which gave Israel the right to take
        action against imminent threats to its security. The diplomat
        described this proposal as "unworkable".
        
        Lebanon's government has not commented publicly on the
        draft, but officials told Reuters that Israel's insistence on
        "direct enforcement" of a deal would breach state sovereignty.
        
        U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, who were in
        Israel on Thursday to discuss a ceasefire with Israeli
        officials, did not continue on to Lebanon for talks.
        
        "After Hochstein's attempt yesterday, that's it. It seems
        only the battlefield will decide," the Lebanese political figure
        close to Hezbollah told Reuters.
        
        'STUBBORNNESS'
        
        The U.S. has struggled to break the deadlock in talks.
        
        This week, Hochstein asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral
        ceasefire with Israel to make headway, two sources told Reuters
        - a claim denied by Lebanon's premier and a U.S. official.
        
        Netanyahu is facing pressure in Israel from the tens of
        thousands evacuated from northern areas to make sure that Israel
        would be able to ensure that any agreement was respected and
        that Hezbollah and other militias would not be able to return.
        
        "It is essential, therefore, that Israel insists on
        retaining security freedom of action to enforce an agreement in
        Lebanon," the conservative Israel Hayom daily said.
        
        Netanyahu's office said he told Hochstein on Thursday that
        Israel's main concern was not "this or that agreement on paper
        but Israel's ability and determination to enforce the agreement
        and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon".
        
        On Friday, Lebanese leaders blamed Israel for undermining
        any deal.
        
        "Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon
        received confirm Israel's stubbornness in rejecting the proposed
        solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and
        destruction," Lebanon's prime minister Najib Mikati said.
        
        Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and
        the main diplomatic channel used to mediate with it, said Israel
        had "wasted more than one opportunity" to reach a ceasefire.
        
        The sources said there would be no progress until after
        the U.S. election race between former President Donald Trump and
        Vice President Kamala Harris had been decided.
        
        "The most likely scenario now is that the Israelis will keep
        doing what they want to do - with no ceasefire," the Western
        diplomat said.