US steps up efforts to end wars in the Middle East | News, sports, jobs

BEIRUT (AP) — The United States and other mediators are stepping up efforts to halt wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, circulating new proposals to end the regional conflict in the final months of the Biden administration.

Negotiations on both fronts have been stalled for months and neither warring side has shown any sign of backing down from their demands.

Senior White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein will visit Israel on Thursday for talks on possible ceasefires in both Lebanon and Gaza, and the release of hostages held by Hamas. CIA Director Bill Burns will go to Egypt to discuss these efforts.

A proposal to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah calls for a two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the country’s southern border, two others said officials familiar with the conversations.

But Israel is unlikely to trust UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops to keep Hezbollah out of the re-established buffer zone in Lebanon. It wants the freedom to attack the militants if necessary. Lebanese officials want a complete withdrawal.

Separately, the US, Egypt and Qatar have proposed a four-week ceasefire in Gaza in which Hamas would release up to 10 hostages, an Egyptian official and a Western diplomat said.

But Hamas still appears unwilling to release dozens of hostages without securing a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, even after the assassination of its top leader, Yahya Sinwar. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed for lasting Israeli control over parts of the territory.

During his visit to Beirut last week, Hochstein met with Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament.

They agreed on a roadmap for implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, according to a Lebanese official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks. to discuss closed doors.

The resolution stipulates a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all Lebanese territory and withdrawal of all armed forces, except UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese Army, from the area south of the Litani River , about thirty kilometers north of the border. .

On Wednesday, Hezbollah’s newly elected leader Naim Kassem said the group will not “beg” for a ceasefire. “If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say we accept it, but under the conditions we deem appropriate,” he said in a televised address.

Israel has not publicly responded to the proposal to end the fighting in Lebanon, which began more than a year ago and dramatically intensified in mid-September. Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati told a Lebanese TV channel that he had spoken to Hochstein ahead of his trip to Israel and that he was “cautiously optimistic.”

U.S. officials say competing proposals for a ceasefire in Lebanon are being discussed, including an idea calling for an immediate ceasefire followed by two months to fully implement the resolution.

Limited ceasefire in Gaza proposed

The US, Egypt and Qatar have proposed a four-week ceasefire in Gaza that would see the release of eight to 10 hostages, a senior Egyptian official said.

Under the plan, humanitarian aid to Gaza would be scaled up, but there would be no guarantees of future talks on a permanent ceasefire, the official said.

Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 in the October 7 attack that sparked the war. More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive, according to local health authorities. They did not say how many fighters, but said more than half were women and children.

About a hundred hostages are still being held in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The latest proposal is based on an initiative by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who last week proposed a two-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of four hostages.

Netanyahu, who has always said he is open to temporary ceasefires for the release of hostages, said in a statement that he had not received a formal proposal based on the Egyptian initiative but “would have accepted it immediately.”

Hamas has said it is open to discussing alternative proposals but stands by its demands for a lasting ceasefire, an Israeli withdrawal and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The Egyptian official said the mediators were not optimistic.

A Western diplomat in Cairo confirmed that their government had been briefed on the proposal and said it was being pursued in parallel with ceasefire efforts in Lebanon. Both officials in Egypt spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the talks.