The messages coming from and about reaching a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon may be positive, but there are still steps to be taken to get there.
On Monday night we had the . Matthew Miller was asked about it and appeared optimistic, but refrained from
“I think we’re close, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get there. We are pushing as hard as we can to achieve a diplomatic solution that will allow these tens of thousands of people in Lebanon and Israel to return home, but ultimately that is up to the parties, not us.
We have made significant progress. We believe that we have significantly reduced the gaps, but there are still steps that we need to see done, but we hope that we can do it,” he said among other things.
Of particular importance is the fact that when asked whether Trump is aware of the contacts, he said: “I’m not aware of any discussion between our team and his team about this.”
The critical ministry in Israel
The most critical day for the development of the negotiations is considered to be Tuesday. Israel’s national security cabinet will meet at 17:30 (local and Greek time) to discuss the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
The meeting will be held at the headquarters of the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) in Tel Aviv, a minister’s representative told the Israeli newspaper Times of Israel. The meeting is scheduled to last until at least 21:00.
According to reports earlier today, the text of the truce between the warring parties had been finalized and officials said “something drastic” would have to happen to collapse the ceasefire agreement before tomorrow’s meeting.
The deputy speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, Elias Bou Saab, stressed that there are no “serious obstacles” to starting to implement a 60-day ceasefire proposed by the US to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. He said a sticking point over who would oversee the ceasefire had been resolved in the past 24 hours with the agreement to set up a commission of five countries, including France, to be led by the US.
A close aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Channel 12, emphasized that the IDF has advised Netanyahu that now is the right time for a ceasefire in Lebanon.
It won’t be an easy task
Everything may indicate that the ministerial will also be a formal procedure. However, things are not quite like that. Within the government there are also the toughest who oppose this plan.
They are those who believe that Israel has before it a great opportunity to finish off Hamas and Hezbollah and achieve total victory. According to Israeli media in the cabinet it is certain that there will be reactions to the content of the agreement and it will not be an easy task.
How we reached the agreement in principle
Recently, the talks had intensified and everything seemed to reach an agreement in the middle of last week. However, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallad angered Israelis.
The news came while Netanyahu was meeting with US envoy Amos Hochstein, who has been mediating between Israel and Lebanon for a year. Netanyahu was outraged and became even angrier when the French Foreign Ministry announced that France would implement the court’s ruling.
This put a damper on the negotiations, as Lebanon wanted France to sit on the monitoring committee that would monitor the implementation of the agreement.
The Biden intervention and the re-approach
On Friday, Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron to try to resolve the issue. A US official said Biden told Macron that Netanyahu was right to be angry and that it was not possible to broker a deal while
Macron told Biden he wanted to help, but that his foreign ministry was just clarifying its legal obligations to the ICC. The French issued a second statement to try to ease tensions.
On Saturday, Hochstein sent a message to Netanyahu through Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Mike Herzog, in which he threatened to withdraw as a mediator if Israel did not move forward with a deal in the coming days, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The crisis was resolved in the last 24 hours, the US official said on Monday. France agreed to take steps to improve relations with Israel, and Israel agreed that France could have a role in implementing the agreement.
Successive contacts brought convergence and next steps
Netanyahu held a meeting on the ceasefire talks on Sunday, attended by several senior ministers and intelligence chiefs, Israeli officials say.
A decision has been made to move forward with the deal, according to a senior Israeli official, who said the announcement could come this week. A second Israeli official who attended the meeting said “the direction is positive” but that several issues remain unresolved.
Two senior U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter said Sunday that the parties were nearing a deal, but that it had not been finalized. On Monday, the Pentagon’s top Middle East policy official, Dan Shapiro, will arrive in Israel and meet with Defense Minister Israel Katz and other Israeli officials.
