The United States and France called for a 21-day ceasefire to pave the way for broader negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a UN Security Council meeting that “hell is breaking loose” in Lebanon.
Israel's top commander said he was preparing for a possible ground operation in Lebanon after three days of intense bombing campaign killed more than 600 people and raised fears of further regional conflict.
“The time has come to ensure safety and security on the Israeli-Lebanese border and allow civilians to return to their homes. The firefights since October 7, and particularly the past two weeks, risk wider conflict and civilian harm,” U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said in a joint statement.
The two leaders, meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, said they had been working on a temporary ceasefire “to allow diplomacy an opportunity to succeed and to avoid further escalation of tensions across the border”.
They called on Israel and Lebanon to support the move, which was also supported by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The announcement came at the end of a heated UN Security Council meeting in which Lebanon's prime minister accused Israel of violating his country's sovereignty. Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Lebanon's hospitals were overwhelmed and could not accommodate any more casualties.
Israel's UN envoy told the Security Council that his country does not seek all-out war and that Iran is the “driving force” of instability spreading across the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the US and UK's “unwavering support for Israel gives them carte blanche to commit all kinds of evil acts.”
Tensions remain between the United States and its European allies over whether to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Security Council. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy supported an immediate ceasefire and said it was time to move away from the brink, adding that “all-out war is not in the interests of Israel or the Lebanese people.”
He said there was no justification for Hezbollah's attacks and called on Iran to use its influence to persuade Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire.
But U.S. diplomats suggested that a call for an unconditional ceasefire in the form of a joint Security Council statement could be seen as a moral equivalence to the actions of Hezbollah, which Israel and the United States designate as a terrorist organization.
The proposed three-week temporary ceasefire could serve as a catalyst for restarting stalled ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. Hezbollah has said it would stop attacks if Hamas agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, but so far there is no sign that either the Hamas leadership or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are close to reaching an agreement.
Netanyahu is due to arrive in New York on Thursday where he is expected to indicate whether he will support a 21-day pause in fighting.
US Deputy Special Envoy Robert Wood said further escalation of the conflict would “only make diplomacy more difficult”, and expressed serious concern over reports that hundreds of Lebanese civilians had been killed in recent days.
But he maintained that the roots of the conflict lie with the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese and 65,000 Israeli civilians who were forced to flee by Hezbollah's decision on October 8 to destroy the peace that had so far largely held.
He said no one wants a repeat of the 2006 war, adding that “it must end with a comprehensive effort with real implementation mechanisms.”
The U.S. envoy did not provide details of the implementation mechanism, but it is unlikely that Hezbollah would support it if it violates its sovereignty.
