France’s foreign minister says his country and the United States are working on a proposal for a 21-day ceasefire “to allow for negotiations” in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Jean-Noel Barrot told the UN Security Council during a meeting about the conflict that the proposal would be released shortly and “we are counting on both parties to accept it without delay”.
Mr Barrot said France, a former colonial power to Lebanon, and the US had consulted with the sides on “final parameters for a diplomatic way out of this crisis”, adding that “war is not unavoidable”.
US deputy ambassador to the UN Robert Wood encouraged the council to support the diplomatic efforts but did not offer specifics about the plan.
“We are working with other countries on a proposal that we hope will lead to calm and enable discussions to a diplomatic solution,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US administration was “intensely engaged with a number of partners to deescalate tensions in Lebanon and to work to get a ceasefire agreement that would have so many benefits for all concerned”.
Mr Blinken and other advisers to President Joe Biden have spent the past three days at and on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly meeting of world leaders in New York lobbying other countries to support the plan, according to US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Americans hope such a ceasefire could lead to longer-term stability along the border between Israel and Lebanon.
Months of Israeli and Hezbollah exchanges of fire across the border drove tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border, and escalated attacks this week have rekindled fears of a broader war in the Middle East.
Mr Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein have been meeting with Middle East allies in New York and have been in touch with Israeli officials about the proposal, one of the US officials said.
Mr McGurk and Mr Hochstein have been the White House’s chief interlocutors with Israel and Lebanon since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, another Iranian-backed militant group.
An Israeli official said Mr Netanyahu has given the green light to pursue a possible deal, but only if it includes the return of Israeli civilians to their homes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati threw his support behind the French-US plan that “enjoys international support and which would put an end to this dirty war”.
He called on the Security Council “to guarantee the withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Lebanese territories and the violations that are repeated on a daily basis”.
When asked about the possibility of a halt in the fighting taking effect on Thursday, a Lebanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to share details with the media, said it was “not wishful thinking”.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Biden warned in an appearance on ABC’s The View that “an all-out war is possible” but said he thinks the opportunity also exists “to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region”.
Mr Biden suggested that getting Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire could help achieve a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
That war is approaching the one-year mark after Hamas raids in southern Israel on October 7 killed about 1,200 people. Israel responded with an offensive that has since killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not provide a breakdown of civilians and fighters in their count.
The US government also raised the pressure with additional sanctions Wednesday targeting more than a dozen ships and other entities it says were involved in illicit shipments of Iranian petroleum for the financial benefit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the chief of Israel’s army said on Wednesday that the military is preparing for a possible ground operation in Lebanon as Hezbollah hurled dozens of projectiles into Israel, including a missile aimed at Tel Aviv that was the militant group’s deepest strike yet.
