Inching closer to truce deal, signal Lebanon, Israel
Lebanon’s deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab told Reuters on Monday that there were “no serious obstacles” left to beginning the implementation of a US-proposed 60-day truce to end fighting between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
“There appear to be no serious obstacles in the way of starting to implement the US proposed ceasefire agreement,” Bou Saab told Reuters.
The US has pushed for a truce deal to end more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, which began in parallel with the Gaza war but drastically intensified over the last two months.
Bou Saab said the proposal included a 60-day timeline for Israeli forces to withdraw from Lebanese territory, giving time for the Lebanese army to deploy to southern Lebanon.
He said one sticking point on who would monitor the ceasefire had been resolved in the last 24 hours by agreeing to set up a five-country committee, including France and chaired by the United States.
A Lebanese official and Western diplomat told Reuters that the US had informed Lebanese officials a ceasefire could be announced “within hours”.
The Western diplomat said another main sticking point had been the sequencing of Israel’s withdrawal, the Lebanese army’s deployment and the return of displaced Lebanese to their homes in southern Lebanon.
A senior Israeli official said on Monday Israel’s cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve a ceasefire deal.
Israeli officials had said earlier that a deal to end the war was getting closer though some issues remained.
Over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful airstrikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut, while the Iran-backed Hezbollah unleashed one of its biggest rocket salvoes yet on Sunday, firing 250 missiles.
Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be “sentenced to death” for his role in the ongoing wars in the Gaza Strip against Hamas and in Lebanon.
