The Biden administration, along with European and Middle Eastern partners, has called on Israel and Hezbollah to accept a 21-day ceasefire, issuing a joint statement Wednesday night saying the escalation of the war is “unacceptable and poses an unacceptable risk of broader regional escalation.”
The statement was signed by the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The proposed 21-day ceasefire is intended to create space for negotiations to resolve the cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon, which began on Oct. 8 last year when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in response to a Hamas terror attack in southern Israel, a senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday night.
“The time has come to conclude a diplomatic solution that will allow civilians on both sides of the border to return safely to their homes,” the statement said.
“We stand ready to fully support all diplomatic efforts to build on the efforts of the past months and reach an agreement between Lebanon and Israel within this time frame, and to put a complete end to this crisis.”
The ceasefire call by the 10 countries and the EU came as Israel signalled it was preparing a ground invasion of southern Lebanon to halt nearly a year of ongoing Hezbollah attacks. Tensions rose last week after what was described as a bold Israeli attack that exploded thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies, wounded Hezbollah fighters and targeted senior commanders.
Hezbollah hit back on Wednesday by firing ballistic missiles that could reach Tel Aviv, showcasing some of the range of its estimated 150,000 rockets. Thousands of Lebanese have fled southern Lebanon after Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes in the past few days, with an estimated 500 people reported dead on the Lebanese side.
In urging acceptance of the ceasefire, Biden administration officials said they held Lebanon responsible for Hezbollah's actions.
“We are negotiating and negotiating with the sovereign state of Lebanon and its leaders. We have been doing that for months. For the last 48 hours, we have been doing that nonstop, day and night,” the official said. “They represent the Lebanese state and are responsible for everything that happens on the other side of the border. As for who they are negotiating and negotiating with, in terms of non-state actors in Lebanon, I think they are aware of the responsibility that they have towards the state, representing the country.”
A senior Biden administration official said in a conference call with reporters that the negotiations aim to reach a comprehensive agreement along the Blue Line, Israel's border with Lebanon, that would allow residents of northern Israel and southern Lebanon to return to their homes.
“The goal is to conclude the agreement within 21 days,” the official said.
“We expect that if both the Lebanese and Israeli governments accept this, a 21-day ceasefire will be implemented on both sides of the Blue Line,” the official added.
U.S. officials said they were “hopeful” that an Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire would create diplomatic space to negotiate an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a three-step agreement the Biden administration has yet to reach. The proposed ceasefire is aimed at forcing Hamas to release an estimated 100 hostages, dead or alive, and to halt Israeli military operations to expand humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“We hope that it will also open up diplomatic space to reinvigorate our very important and primary effort to bring the hostages home,” the official said.
“This refers to the three-phase agreement that we have been working on. However, this is an important breakthrough for the Lebanese side, especially given the events of the past few weeks. But we will try to take advantage of the space that is broadly offered to us on all sides.”
