US says ceasefire call shows Hezbollah ‘getting battered’

By Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hezbollah’s call for a ceasefire on Tuesday shows the militant group is on the back foot and “getting battered,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a regular briefing on Tuesday.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said in a televised address on Tuesday the Iran-backed group’s capabilities were intact and its fighters were pushing back Israeli ground incursions, despite the “painful blows” inflicted by Israel in recent weeks.

Qassem said the group supported the efforts of Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a ceasefire, without providing further details on any conditions demanded by Hezbollah.

“For a year, you had the world calling for this ceasefire, you had Hezbollah refusing to agree to one, and now that Hezbollah is on the back foot and is getting battered, suddenly they’ve changed their tune and want a ceasefire,” Miller said.

“We continue to ultimately want a diplomatic solution to this conflict,” Miller said.

Asked if the United States was talking to Berri about efforts in Lebanon to choose a new president, Miller said U.S. officials were having conversations with different players inside Lebanon, often through intermediaries.

“Those are ongoing,” Miller said. “I don’t think it’s productive for me to read them out publicly.”

Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon has prompted a renewed bid by some Lebanese politicians to fill a two-year presidential vacuum, an effort to revive the paralyzed state as it grapples with an escalating conflict.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, David Brunnstrom and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Rod Nickel)