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Hezbollah supports ceasefire talks while the IDF targets top politicians in Lebanon

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Hezbollah supports ceasefire talks while the IDF targets top politicians in Lebanon

Hezbollah said it supported efforts for a ceasefire with Israel as the IDF continued to target its top leadership and the two armies sharply increased their bombings.

“Once the issue of a ceasefire takes shape and diplomacy can achieve it, all other details can be discussed and decisions made,” Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said on Tuesday. “If the enemy (Israel) continues its war, the battlefield will decide.”

Qassem particularly mentioned the efforts of the Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to restore calm.

“We support the political activities that Berri is leading under the title of a ceasefire,” the deputy leader said in his 30-minute televised address.

It was not clear whether this signaled a change in stance after a year of the group saying it was fighting to support both Hamas and the Palestinian people in their war with Israel and would not stop without a ceasefire in Gaza.

Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's second-in-command, speaks to the crowd at the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, the commander of Hezbollah's Radwan forces, and Mahmoud Hamad, another Hezbollah commander, both killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the southern suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut, Lebanon. (Credit: COURTNEY BONNEAU/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Qassem says the conflict with Israel was a war of who would cry first

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller made it clear that Israel had not accepted a ceasefire. The word ceasefire only has meaning, he explained, if it includes an agreement for Hezbollah's withdrawal from Israel's northern border and back to the Litani River, as set out in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which sets out the terms of the ceasefire The Lebanon War was described in detail during the Second World War.

“Obviously we don’t trust Hezbollah,” Miller said. “But look at what Hezbollah said in 2006, when 1701 was adopted by the UN Security Council … that they would implement 1701 – and they have kept all their commitments.

“So there is an obvious lack of confidence in Hezbollah's ability to do what it said it would do in 2006 and do what it promises to do now, which is to agree to an actual ceasefire, allowing Israeli civilians to return home and would allow Lebanese civilians to return home,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Qassem's statement about a ceasefire, Miller said, showed that Israel had succeeded in weakening the group's military power.

For a year Hezbollah didn't want to talk about a ceasefire, and now that they're “in retreat and under attack, they've suddenly changed their tune and want a ceasefire.” I think that's given the situation they're in are, not surprisingly,” he said.

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From an undisclosed location, Qassem said the conflict with Israel was a war about who would cry first, and Hezbollah was not the first to cry. The group's capabilities remained intact despite “painful blows” from Israel.

“Dozens of cities are within range of the resistance’s missiles. We assure you that our capabilities are fine,” he said.

His televised address was shown on the same day that Israel announced it had killed Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah official who was set to replace the Lebanon-based terrorist group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel assassinated Nasrallah in late September, just two days after the United States and France proposed a 21-day ceasefire to create an opportunity for a diplomatic solution to the years-long IDF-Hezbollah war along Israel's border, just as Israel was upgrading its ceasefire military activity against him.

The assassination and the expansion of the IDF-Hezbollah war pushed those efforts into the background, although the international community and US President Joe Biden continued to call for diplomacy.

The United States made clear on Tuesday that it was seeking the “right time” for such a ceasefire agreement.

“We will have regular consultations with the Israelis, the Lebanese and others about when the right time is to push for such an agreement,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday.

“We are in regular discussions” with the Israelis and the Lebanese “on this specific issue,” she said. “We need some space, some diplomatic dialogue to get there.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released an English-language video calling on the Lebanese people to rise up against Hezbollah as he confirmed that Israel had killed Safieddine, who has not been seen since October 3.

“We have weakened Hezbollah’s capabilities; We have eliminated thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's successor and his successor's successor,” Netanyahu said.

“Today Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years,” he emphasized in an unusual English-language video.

The prime minister called on the Lebanese people to save their country by driving out the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah, a non-state actor that he said has destroyed Lebanon, once known as the “pearl” of the Middle East.

“So what happened to Lebanon? A gang of tyrants and terrorists destroyed it. That’s what happened,” he said.

“Lebanon was once known for its tolerance and beauty; Today it is a place of chaos, a place of war,” Netanyahu said.

“You have the opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza. It doesn’t have to be that way,” he said.

“I say to you, the Lebanese people: liberate your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end; Free your country from Hezbollah so that your country can prosper again, so that future generations of Lebanese and Israeli children will know neither war nor bloodshed, but can finally live together in peace.”

Netanyahu spoke as Israel has significantly expanded the scope of its military activities against Hezbollah in Lebanon in recent weeks.

France and Qatar provided urgent humanitarian aid to Lebanon on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, as Paris pushed for broader humanitarian efforts and a ceasefire in the country.

“If we do nothing, Lebanon could tomorrow resemble what Syria has become,” Barrot told MPs in Parliament: “a center of instability for smuggling, terrorism and a starting point for a large migration of civilians seeking refuge in Europe. “ .”

French and Qatari military aircraft delivered about 27 tons of medicine and basic supplies, including blankets and hygiene products, diplomatic sources said on condition of anonymity.

The French foreign minister called on both Israel and Hezbollah to accept the 21-day ceasefire proposal to “give peace and negotiations a chance to guarantee the sovereignty of Lebanon and the security of Israel.”

France is also working to put together a conference on Lebanon soon that will focus on three pillars: humanitarian aid, strengthening the Lebanese army and discussing the ongoing political vacuum in the country, Barrot said.

Reuters contributed to this report.



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