Lebanon's PM asks Iran to help secure a cease-fire in Israel-Hezbollah war

BEIRUT (AP):

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister on Friday asked Iran to help secure a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah and appeared to urge it to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.

As a top adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei visited Lebanon for talks, Lebanese officials said an American proposal for a cease-fire deal had been passed on to Hezbollah, aiming to end 13 months of exchanges of fire between Israel and the group.

Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas' surprise attack into Israel on October 7, 2023 ignited the war in Gaza – prompting exchanges between the two sides ever since.

Since late September, Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel. More than 3,300 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire – 80 per cent of them in the past month – Lebanon's Health Ministry says.

According to Lebanese media, US Ambassador Lisa Johnson handed over a draft of a proposed cease-fire deal to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been leading the talks representing Hezbollah.

A Lebanese official confirmed that Beirut has received a copy of a draft proposal based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war, in the summer of 2006. A Lebanese politician said Hezbollah officials had received the draft, were studying it and would express their opinion on it to Berri. The politician, who knows the work of Hezbollah, and the official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media about the ongoing talks.

UN resolution 1701, among other things, holds that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should operate in southern Lebanon, meaning Hezbollah would have to end its presence there. That provision was never implemented. Lebanon accuses Israel of also violating the resolution by maintaining hold of a small, disputed border area and conducting frequent military overflights over Lebanon.

The Lebanese official did not give details other than to say Israel was insisting that some guarantees be included. The US Embassy refused to either confirm or deny the reports.