After 'further progress' in negotiations, Hochstein to visit Tel Aviv

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, in charge of mediating a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, arrived in Ain al-Tineh to meet with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is leading the negotiations on the Lebanese side.

Hochstein had already been received on Tuesday by the head of the legislature. He said then that a solution was “within reach” to end the war.

He will then leave Lebanon for Israel in the evening, according to information from Axios journalist Barak Ravid, citing Israeli authorities. Hochstein will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

Remaining in Beirut after an initial tour of officials on Tuesday, and before a planned stopover in Tel Aviv, the emissary spoke in the morning with former Lebanese president Michel Aoun, at his home in Rabieh, according to a message on X from the former head of state. During the meeting, the American diplomat “updated Aoun on the status of cease-fire negotiations.” The two men exchanged “ideas and suggestions” on how to “strengthen Lebanon's rights and the role of the Lebanese Army.”

Geagea insists on Resolutions 1559, 1680 and 1701

On Tuesday evening, after talks with Nabih Berri, outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Lebanese Army Commander Joseph Aoun, Hochstein was received for dinner in Maarab by Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Geagea insisted that “any solution that is not based on the application of international resolutions 1559, 1680, 1701 and the relevant clauses of the Taif Agreement will be of no use to Lebanon.”

Resolutions 1680 and 1701 were both approved in 2006. The former concerns the delineation of the land border between Lebanon and Syria, while the latter, which put an end to the July 2006 war, provides for the withdrawal of the party from areas south of the Litani River. The 1559 agreement, dating from 2004, calls for the disarmament of “Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias.”

Hochstein briefed Geagea on the progress of his cease-fire negotiations and the mechanisms for implementing resolution 1701. He added that he was awaiting replies from the Lebanese side, which he would pass on to Israel if there were any serious positive elements to build on.

The meeting was attended by U.S. ambassador Lisa Johnson, MP Sethrida Geagea, wife of the LF leader, and former minister Richard Kouyoumjian, responsible for external relations within the LF, reports the official National News Agency (NNA).

One year after Hezbollah opened a Gaza-supporting front in southern Lebanon, on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the Palestinian Hamas movement attacked Israeli territory and the two belligerents exchanged fire across the border, the Israeli army stepped up a gear, increasing the intensity of its bombardments in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa and Beirut's southern suburbs. Recent strikes have even hit parts of Beirut previously spared. The war has already left 3,544 people dead and 15,036 wounded in Lebanon, according to the latest figures from the Lebanese Health Ministry published on Tuesday.