U.S. presidential envoy Amos Hochstein was back in Beirut on Monday in another attempt at a diplomatic resolution to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah.
The deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and senior adviser for energy and investment said during his visit to the Lebanese capital that the administration is committed to ending the conflict “as soon as possible,” according to media reports.
He made the remarks after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri of the Hezbollah-aligned Amal movement.
“Tying Lebanon’s future to other conflicts in the region was not and is not in the interest of the Lebanese people,” Hochstein added.
The Biden envoy was also scheduled to meet with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday.
In a statement from his office, Mikati said there was no alternative to U.N. Resolution 1701, but added that “new understandings” could be reached to implement it, Reuters reported.
Lebanon’s government and its army are supposed to enforce Resolution 1701, which was designed 18 years ago to bring permanent peace to the country after the 2006 Lebanon War. The resolution calls for disarming Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, and restoring full Lebanese sovereignty in the south.
Despite the resolution being in effect for 18 years, Hezbollah has flourished in Southern Lebanon until Israel’s ground and aerial offensive of the last few months.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported in Axios on Sunday that last week Israel gave the United States a document outlining its conditions for a halt to fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Two U.S. officials and two Israeli officials were cited in the story as saying that Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer sent the document to Hochstein on Oct. 17.
The Israeli demands reportedly include allowing the Israel Defense Forces the freedom to engage in “active enforcement” to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild and rearm to again threaten Israeli communities from Southern Lebanon.
Israel is also demanding freedom of operation in Lebanese air space.
Overnight Sunday, Israeli airstrikes targeted Hezbollah financial sites across Lebanon.