Lebanon's prime minister asks Iran to help secure a cease-fire in Israel-Hezbollah war

[November 16, 2024]  By BASSEM MROUE and DAVID RISING

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister on Friday asked Iran to help secure a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah and appeared to urge it to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.

As a top adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei visited Lebanon for talks, Lebanese officials said an American proposal for a cease-fire deal had been passed on to Hezbollah, aiming to end 13 months of exchanges of fire between Israel and the group.

Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 ignited the war in Gaza – prompting exchanges between the two sides ever since.

Since late September, Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel. More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire – 80% of them in the past month -- Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

According to Lebanese media, U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson handed over a draft of a proposed cease-fire deal to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been leading the talks representing Hezbollah.

A Lebanese official confirmed that Beirut has received a copy of a draft proposal based on U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war, in the summer of 2006. A Lebanese politician said Hezbollah officials had received the draft, were studying it and would express their opinion on it to Berri. The politician, who knows the work of Hezbollah, and the official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks.

U.N. resolution 1701, among other things, holds that only the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers should operate in southern Lebanon, meaning Hezbollah would have to end its presence there. That provision was never implemented. Lebanon accuses Israel of also violating the resolution by maintaining hold of a small, disputed border area and conducting frequent military overflights over Lebanon.

The Lebanese official did not give details other than to say Israel was insisting that some guarantees be included. The U.S. Embassy refused to either confirm or deny the reports.

In talks with Khamenei's adviser, Ali Larijani, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged Iran to help implement resolution 1701. He said the Lebanese government wants the war to end and the resolution to be implemented “in all its details,” according to a statement on the talks issued by his office.

Mikati, who in recent weeks has become more critical of Iran’s role in Lebanon, also said the government wants Iran to help Lebanon’s national unity and not take any stance backing one party against another.

Iran’s backing for Hezbollah has helped the group, which is the most powerful faction among Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims, dominate the country’s politics the last decade.

After meeting Mikati and Berri, Larijani said his visit’s main aim was “to loudly say that we will stand by Lebanon’s government and people.”

Asked if he was trying to thwart U.S. cease-fire mediation, Larijani said, “We are not trying to blow up any effort, but we want to solve the problem and we will stand by Lebanon, whatever the circumstances.”

Thick smoke and flames erupt from an Israeli airstrike on Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An Israeli airstrike on a home in the southern province of Nabatiyeh killed a mother, father and their three children on Friday, state media said, while three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province.

Israeli forces also carried out new strikes around the Lebanese capital on Friday. Three waves of air raids hit buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, setting off explosions in the area known as Dahiyeh.

In an earlier strike on the southeastern edge of Beirut, images taken by an Associated Press photographer captured a rocket about to strike an 11-story residential building in the Tayouneh neighborhood – then showed a blast of flame erupting from the side of the building. Much of a lower level of the building was smashed to rubble.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in any of the strikes. In each case, the Israeli military had issued a warning before the attack, saying it was targeting Hezbollah facilities.

Near the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, rescue workers called off their search for survivors from an Israeli strike a civil defense center, killing 14 civil defense workers and volunteers.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on why the civil defense center was targeted late Thursday. Lebanon’s civil defense forces have no affiliation with Hezbollah, and provide crucial rescue and medical services in one of the world’s most war-torn nations.

Israel has expanded its operations in Lebanon even as it continues its campaign in the Gaza Strip, vowing to destroy Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.

Funerals were held Friday for 11 Palestinians killed Thursday in a series of Israeli airstrikes in and around the central Gaza Strip city of Deir al-Balah. Two children were among the dead, seen with the other dead by an AP reporter.

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council’s 10 elected members circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire” in Gaza. The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether the U.N. Security Council adopts the resolution. The four other permanent members — Russia, China, Britain and France — are expected to support it or abstain.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives since then have killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say. The officials don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but say more than half of those killed have been women and children.

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Rising reported from Bangkok. Abby Sewell in Beirut, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, contributed to this report.

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