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A U.S. official said Sunday evening that Secretary Rubio spoke with both Lebanon’s President Josef Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend about the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.
To advance the talks, the U.S. proposed a sequence of events that would see the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon stop all attacks on Israel, and in return, Israel would refrain from escalation in Lebanese capital Beirut.
The idea is that those first steps would create space for gradual deescalation and an effective cessation of hostilities.
Aoun tried to advance the proposal, but the response from Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a senior Lebanese lawmaker who’s acted as an interlocutor between the U.S. and Hezbollah, which has long been designated a terrorist organization, was described by the U.S. official as evasive and disappointing.
Berri said he could “guarantee” Hezbollah’s commitment to a ceasefire, but only if Israel stopped its attacks on the group first. That, the official said, was disappointing, as it was the Iranian-backed group that initiated the current round of fighting on March 2.
Hezbollah started launching rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli strikes on its Iranian benefactors, two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war with Iran.
The U.S. does not expect Israel to tolerate ongoing attacks against civilians by Hezbollah, the source said, adding that the fastest way to deescalate and protect civilians on all sides would be for Hezbollah to stop firing immediately.
