Biden and Macron are set to announce a truce between Israel and Hezbollah – FBC News

(Source: Reuters)

US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to soon announce a ceasefire in Lebanon between the armed group Hezbollah and Israel, four senior Lebanese sources said on Monday.

In Washington, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said, “We are close,” but “nothing will be done until everything is done.”

The French President said that ceasefire negotiations had made significant progress. In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official said Israel’s cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve a truce agreement with Hezbollah.

Signs of a diplomatic breakthrough were accompanied by heavy Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut as Israel pressed ahead with an offensive launched in September after nearly a year of cross-border fighting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on reports that Israel and Lebanon had agreed on the text of the agreement. But a senior Israeli official told Reuters that a cabinet meeting on Tuesday was expected to approve the text.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Israel would retain the ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement. Lebanon had previously objected to language granting Israel such a right.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said differences between the two sides had narrowed significantly, but they still had to take steps to reach an agreement.

The diplomacy is aimed at getting Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel to end the fighting, which erupted in October 2023 in parallel with Israel’s war against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Over the past two months, the conflict in Lebanon has escalated sharply.

In Beirut, Elias Bou Saab, deputy speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, told Reuters there were “no serious obstacles left” to starting to implement the proposed U.S. ceasefire with Israel “unless Netanyahu changes his mind.”

He said the proposal would entail the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon and the stationing of regular Lebanese army troops in the border area, long a Hezbollah stronghold, within 60 days.

He said the issue of who would enforce the ceasefire had been resolved in the past 24 hours thanks to an agreement to create a committee of five countries, including France, chaired by the United States.