US envoy to travel to Israel in bid to seal Hezbollah ceasefire
BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said he will travel to Israel on Wednesday to try to secure a ceasefire ending the war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group after declaring additional progress in talks in Beirut.
Hochstein, who arrived a day earlier in Beirut, said he saw a “real opportunity” to end the conflict after the Lebanese government and Hezbollah agreed to a U.S. ceasefire proposal, although with some comments.
“The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said after his second meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, endorsed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah to negotiate.
“So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can,” Hochstein said.
The diplomacy aims to end a conflict that has inflicted massive devastation in Lebanon since Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah in September, mounting airstrikes across wide parts of the country and sending in troops.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Hezbollah, still reeling from the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, has kept up rocket fire into Israel, including targeting Tel Aviv this week. Its fighters are battling Israeli troops on the ground in the south.
Although diplomacy to end the Gaza war has largely stalled, the Biden administration aims to seal a ceasefire in the parallel conflict in Lebanon before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
“We are going to work with the incoming administration. We’re already going to be discussing this with them. They will be fully aware of what we’re doing,” Hochstein said.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Andrew Heavens)