Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah have "intensified" over the past several hours, according to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
The statement from Mikati comes hours ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss the situation in the Middle East .
Lebanese officials have contacted the U.S. and French governments, which were involved in a recent but failed ceasefire proposal that was unveiled in late September. The proposal called for a three-week cessation of hostilities to give both sides time to reach a long-standing diplomatic solution to the conflict that has gone on for more than a year.
“There are contacts taking place between the United States and France … with the aim of reviving the declaration of a ceasefire for a specific period in order to resume the search for political solutions,” Mikati’s office said on X, citing the prime minister.
Hezbollah’s current top official, Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem, shared his support for the government’s efforts to get a ceasefire agreement Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of the start of its attacks. It came around the time the Israeli military identified about 135 projectiles launched from southern Lebanon into Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined the last proposal and his country, days later, assassinated Hezbollah's top senior leader, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Israel's military has killed nearly every senior Hezbollah official, including multiple possible successors to Nasrallah, since the beginning of September when it ramped up its attacks on Hezbollah.
Hezbollah began firing rockets and missiles from southern Lebanon into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after Hamas launched the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history. The Hezbollah cross-border fires have continued for the last year. Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes but has not been able, militarily, to get Hezbollah to stop its attacks, and diplomatic efforts have failed as well.
Israel evacuated more than 50,000 people from northern Israel, the primary target of Hezbollah's attacks, a year ago. Those families are still displaced.
Mikati said his country has expressed its "readiness" to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. The resolution, which Hezbollah has never abided by, ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war, which took place in the summer of 2006. The resolution required Israel's military to withdraw from Lebanon, which it did, and for Hezbollah to move north of the Litani River, which would create about an 18-mile buffer area in southern Lebanon that would separate Israel and Hezbollah's positions. Hezbollah never left southern Lebanon .
Israeli forces have begun limited ground operations in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah positions and its arsenal, though Hezbollah has still been able to launch projectiles into Israeli territory.
"Yes, we do support Israel launching these incursions to degrade Hezbollah's infrastructure," State spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday. "So 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."
Netanyahu has repeatedly declined opportunities to get ceasefire deals accomplished in Gaza and now in Lebanon, raising questions about whether it would agree now, especially as it has Hezbollah on its back foot and is weighing how to retaliate against Iran for last week's massive missile barrage.
The Israeli prime minister spoke with President Joe Biden on Wednesday for the first time since late August.
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"On Lebanon, the President emphasized the need for a diplomatic arrangement to safely return both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line," a White House readout of the call said. "The President affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone, while emphasizing the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut."
Biden has also said he does not support Israel targeting Iran's nuclear program or oil facilities in retaliation for last week's missile attack, though he has supported Israel's right to respond.
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