By Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam
BEIRUT (Reuters) – American efforts to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah have failed after the U.S. drafted an “unrealistic” ceasefire proposal and Israel’s insistence on being able to enforce a truce directly, people briefed on the diplomacy told Reuters.
With no workable proposal on the table ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election, the conflict could drag on for months, according to a Lebanese political source close to Hezbollah, two diplomats and a person briefed on the talks.
They all spoke on condition of anonymity. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond to questions from Reuters.
A U.S. official said talks between U.S. envoys and Israeli officials on Thursday yielded better results than expected. A second U.S. official described the meetings as “substantive” and “constructive” but said the U.S. would not negotiate in public.
The State Department referred Reuters to comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said Israel and Lebanon were moving toward understandings on what was required to end the conflict but more work was needed.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire for a year in parallel with the Gaza war but fighting has escalated in recent weeks. Israel says it has uncovered Hezbollah tunnels and weapons stores in south Lebanon, and that the Iran-backed group had planned an incursion into Israel even larger than Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
The U.S. had drafted a 60-day truce proposal that would see Hezbollah pull back from Lebanon’s southern border, both sides cease attacks and 10,000 Lebanese army troops deploy in the south, according to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.
But two diplomats told Reuters the diplomatic efforts had failed because that draft was not viable.
“It was totally unrealistic because of the onus it places on the Lebanese army to solve these problems,” a Western diplomat told Reuters.
A regional diplomat echoed those doubts, specifically pointing to elements of a “side letter” between the U.S. and Israel published by Kan which gave Israel the right to take action against imminent threats to its security. The diplomat described this proposal as “unworkable”.
Lebanon’s government has not commented publicly on the draft, but officials told Reuters that Israel’s insistence on “direct enforcement” of a deal would breach state sovereignty.
U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, who were in Israel on Thursday to discuss a ceasefire with Israeli officials, did not continue on to Lebanon for talks.
“After Hochstein’s attempt yesterday, that’s it. It seems only the battlefield will decide,” the Lebanese political figure close to Hezbollah told Reuters.
‘STUBBORNNESS’
The U.S. has struggled to break the deadlock in talks.
This week, Hochstein asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire with Israel to make headway, two sources told Reuters – a claim denied by Lebanon’s premier and a U.S. official.
Netanyahu is facing pressure in Israel from the tens of thousands evacuated from northern areas to make sure that Israel would be able to ensure that any agreement was respected and that Hezbollah and other militias would not be able to return.
“It is essential, therefore, that Israel insists on retaining security freedom of action to enforce an agreement in Lebanon,” the conservative Israel Hayom daily said.
Netanyahu’s office said he told Hochstein on Thursday that Israel’s main concern was not “this or that agreement on paper but Israel’s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon”.
On Friday, Lebanese leaders blamed Israel for undermining any deal.
“Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel’s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction,” Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati said.
Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and the main diplomatic channel used to mediate with it, said Israel had “wasted more than one opportunity” to reach a ceasefire.
The sources said there would be no progress until after the U.S. election race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris had been decided.
“The most likely scenario now is that the Israelis will keep doing what they want to do – with no ceasefire,” the Western diplomat said.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam in Beirut; Additional reporting by James Mackenzie in Jerusalem, and Trevor Hunnicutt and Simon Lewis in Washington; Editing by Ros Russell)