Israel is considering a short-term ceasefire in Lebanon that could pause the war against Hezbollah, Israeli and Lebanese officials said Wednesday.
The Israeli government has yet to formally sign off on the truce, and the discussions around it remained fluid. It could be discussed by Israel’s high-level security Cabinet when it meets Wednesday night, one of the Israeli officials said.
Israel and Lebanon held rare talks Tuesday, hailed by the United States as a “historic milestone” that Washington hoped would bring lasting peace. It is unclear whether Hezbollah would go along with a ceasefire, however, even if Israel and the Lebanese government agreed on one.
Iran has insisted that its current two-week truce with the United States should extend to Lebanon, and the Trump administration has appeared eager to secure a detente between Israel and Hezbollah. A ceasefire in Lebanon would remove one obstacle in talks to convert the U.S.-Iran truce into a durable peace.
President Donald Trump said last week that he had asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to scale back attacks in Lebanon. Israel did stop strikes on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, but kept up attacks on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
A senior Lebanese official said the Lebanese government has been notified by the United States that Israel was considering a short-term truce after the Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington on Tuesday.
Hezbollah had yet to respond to the idea, the Lebanese official added. The Lebanese government does not speak for Hezbollah.
Two of the Israeli officials said the ceasefire could begin as early as Thursday and last about a week.
A senior U.S. administration official said the truce under consideration was not something Washington had asked for nor was it part of the U.S.-Iran negotiations. The official said President Donald Trump nonetheless would welcome the end of hostilities in Lebanon as part of an Israeli-Lebanese peace agreement.
All of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive diplomacy publicly. A spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister could not immediately be reached for comment.
Israel launched its sweeping military campaign in Lebanon in early March, just days after the U.S.-Israeli air war with Iran started. It began after Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets at northern Israel in solidarity with its patron, Iran.
An Israeli ground invasion in southern Lebanon has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes. More than 2,000 people have been killed, according to Lebanese authorities, including both civilians and Hezbollah fighters.
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