French-American initiative calls for 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon – Technologist

The US and France are pushing for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, to avoid a conflagration in Lebanon which could have unpredictable regional consequences. This initiative has been the core subject of intense discussions between European and Arab countries in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which opened on Tuesday, September 24. It consists of proposing a three-week pause in the fighting, which would give time for negotiations to resume; not only on Lebanon, but also on Gaza.

However, the belligerents would first have to accept the principle of such an agreement, at a time when Israel has claimed some 2,000 strikes against targets attributed to Hezbollah over three days. More than 600 people have been killed in Lebanon since Monday, including 50 children and 94 women. On Wednesday, Israel extended its strikes to areas that had never been targeted before, even during the 2006 war, in the Druze region of Chouf and Keserwan, the Christian mountain district north of Beirut.

In a joint press release issued on Wednesday evening, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar lent their support to the French-American initiative. The text refers to “an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation” and calls on the Israeli and Lebanese governments to immediately endorse the idea of a 21-day ceasefire.

Difficult discussions

During this pause, the terms of a lasting peace between Lebanon and Israel, along the lines that US President Joe Biden’s adviser Amos Hochstein and France have been promoting for months, would be expected to be finalized. Crucial to this approach would be the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and the final establishment of the land border between Israel and Lebanon, which would allow for displaced civilians on both sides to return to their homes.

Resolution 1701, which was adopted by the UN at the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, called for a cessation of hostilities, an end to Israeli flights over Lebanon and the disarmament of all armed groups, including Hezbollah, to allow the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers to be deployed.

Paris and Washington are ready to act as guarantors of monitoring the ceasefire. Their proposal makes no mention of Gaza, but the two countries would like to take advantage of a truce between Israel and Lebanon to revive negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as well as on releasing Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

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