US, allies call for immediate 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah

The US, France and other allies jointly called on Wednesday for an immediate 21-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.

The countries calling for a halt to the Israel-Hizbollah conflict are the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, says the recent fighting is "intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation.”

"We call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy,” the statement said. "We call on all parties, including the governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary ceasefire immediately."

Israeli hardliners reject ceasefire proposal

However, hardline partners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition on Thursday rejected proposals from the United States and France that would see a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon to allow time for a diplomatic solution to be reached.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads one of two nationalist-religious factions in the coalition, said Hizbollah should be crushed and that only its surrender would make it possible for the evacuees to return.

 Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike as seen from Tyre, Lebanon on Thursday. Reuters

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's far-right faction was due to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday but members of the party have already come out against the proposal.

Earlier, representatives for Israel and Lebanon reiterated their support for a UN resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and the Iranian-backed group.

The US hopes the new deal could lead to longer-term stability along the border between Israel and Lebanon. Months of Israeli and Hizbollah exchanges of fire have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes, and escalated attacks over the past week have rekindled fears of a broader war in the Middle East.

The US officials said Hizbollah would not be a signatory to the ceasefire but believed the Lebanese government would coordinate its acceptance with the group. They said they expected Israel to "welcome” the proposal and perhaps formally accept it when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the General Assembly on Friday.

Restarting Gaza truce talks

While the deal applies only to the Israel-Lebanon border, the US officials said they were looking to use a three-week pause in fighting to restart stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, another Iranian-backed group, after nearly a year of war in Gaza.

 Attendees walk out of the Security Council meeting as Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon begins his speech at UN headquarters in New York. Reuters

Blinken first raised the proposal with the French foreign minister on Monday and then broadened his outreach that evening at a dinner with the foreign ministers of all the Group of Seven industrialised democracies.

During a meeting on Wednesday morning with Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers, Blinken approached Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan to ask their approval and got it. Blinken and senior White House adviser Amos Hochstein then met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who signed off on the deal.

Sullivan, Hochstein and senior adviser Brett McGurk were also in touch with Israeli officials about the proposal, one of the US officials said. McGurk and Hochstein have been the White House’s chief interlocutors with Israel and Lebanon since the Oct.7 attack on Israel by Hamas launched the war in Gaza.

Green light, with conditions

The officials said the deal crystallised by late Wednesday afternoon during a conversation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly between Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Blinken expects to meet Netanyahu’s top strategic adviser in New York on Thursday ahead of the prime minister’s arrival.

An Israeli official said Netanyahu has given the green light to pursue a possible deal, but only if it includes the return of Israeli civilians to their homes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the UN Security Council during a special meeting that "we are counting on both parties to accept it without delay” and added that "war is not unavoidable.”

At the meeting, Mikati, the Lebanese Prime Minister, publicly threw his support behind the French-US plan that "enjoys international support and which would put an end to this dirty war.”

He called on the Security Council "to guarantee the withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Lebanese territories and the violations that are repeated on a daily basis.”

‘Not seeking’ a full-scale war

Israel’s UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, told journalists that Israel would like to see a ceasefire and the return of people to their homes near the border: "It will happen, either after a war or before a war. We hope it will be before.”

Addressing the Security Council later, he made no mention of a temporary ceasefire but said Israel "does not seek a full-scale war.”

Both Danon and Mikati reaffirmed their governments’ commitment to a Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war. Never fully implemented, it called for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to be replaced by Lebanese forces and UN peacekeepers, and the disarmament of all armed groups including Hizbollah.

Earlier on Wednesday, Biden warned in an appearance on ABC’s "The View” that "an all-out war is possible” but said he thinks the opportunity also exists "to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region.”

Desire for change in the region

Biden suggested that getting Israel and Hizbollah to agree to a ceasefire could help achieve a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

That war is approaching the one-year mark after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostages. Israel responded with an offensive that has since killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not provide a breakdown of civilians and fighters in their count.

"It's possible and I'm using every bit of energy I have with my team … to get this done,” Biden said. "There's a desire to see change in the region.”

Associated Press