The US ambassador to Lebanon presented a draft truce proposal to Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday to stop fighting between the militant organization Hezbollah and Israel, two political sources told Reuters, without revealing details .
The United States has tried to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, but the efforts have yet to produce a result. Israel launched an intensified air and ground campaign in late September following parallel cross-border clashes .
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson met Thursday with Berri, a Hezbollah ally and typical diplomatic conduit to the group, to present the first written U.S. proposal in several weeks, two senior Lebanese political sources said.
“This is a project to get comments from the Lebanese side,” one of the sources told Reuters. Neither source was able to provide details on the content of the proposal.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
Results of draft proposals so far
Ceasefire efforts so far have focused on better implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 and stipulates that southern Lebanon must be weapons-free who do not belong to the Lebanese state.
Draft proposals leaked in recent weeks include details of a monitoring mechanism that could involve other countries.
Lebanon approved Convention 1701 as a way out of the current conflict. Israel, however, has called for maintaining the right to target Hezbollah if it violates the provisions of the truce or poses a threat to Israel.
Lebanese officials say that “direct application” by Israel was not formally proposed to Lebanon, but that it would be rejected by the Lebanese government.
“The idea that Israel could impose it at any time is unthinkable,” one of the political sources said on Thursday.
Israeli attacks on military sites in Damascus kill 15 people
Fifteen people were killed in Israeli attacks on residential buildings in Damascus, Syrian state media reported, and Israel said the strikes targeted military sites and the Islamic Jihad group’s headquarters.
The targeted buildings were located in the suburbs of Mazzeh and Qudsaya, both in the western part of the Syrian capital, SANA news agency reported on Thursday, citing a Syrian military source.
Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, but has stepped up such raids since last year.
Commanders of Hezbollah and the Syria-based Iranian Revolutionary Guards are known to reside in Mazzeh, according to residents who fled after recent attacks that killed some of the groups’ key figures.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Islamic political party and militant group formed in 1982 after Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon that year.
He is backed by Iran and leads a multi-party alliance that holds just under half the seats in the Lebanese parliament.
Hezbollah is listed as a terrorist organization by countries including Australia, the United States, Israel, Germany and the United Kingdom. The European Union lists only its military wing as a terrorist organization.
However, Hezbollah itself makes no distinction between its political and military wings.
