Lebanon’s prime minister asks Iran to help secure a cease-fire in Israel-Hezbollah war
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Friday asked Iran to help secure a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah and appeared to urge it to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israeli-Lebanese border.
As a top advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited Lebanon for talks, Lebanese officials said a U.S. cease-fire proposal had been passed on to the Iranian proxy Hezbollah, aiming to end 13 months of exchanges of fire between Israel and the group.
Hezbollah — which Iran has funded and armed for decades — began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel, which had retaliated, dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon in late September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages into Israel. More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire — 80% of them in the last month — Lebanon’s health ministry says.
As Israeli airstrikes flatten swaths of Lebanon, groups warn the attacks mirror some of the patterns of destruction and displacement seen in Gaza.
According to Lebanese media, U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson handed over a draft of a proposed cease-fire deal to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been leading the talks representing Hezbollah.
A Lebanese official confirmed that Beirut has received a copy of a draft proposal based on United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war, in the summer of 2006.
A Lebanese politician said Hezbollah officials had received the draft, were studying it and would express their opinion on it to Berri. The politician, who knows the work of Hezbollah, and the official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks.
U.N. resolution 1701, among other things, holds that only the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers should operate in southern Lebanon, meaning Hezbollah would have to end its presence there. That provision was never implemented. Lebanon accuses Israel of also violating the resolution by maintaining hold of a small, disputed border area and conducting frequent military overflights over Lebanon.
The Lebanese official did not give details other than to say Israel was insisting that some guarantees be included. The U.S. Embassy refused to either confirm or deny the reports.
In talks with Khamenei’s advisor, Ali Larijani, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged Iran to help implement resolution 1701. He said the Lebanese government wants the war to end and the resolution to be implemented “in all its details,” according to a statement on the talks issued by his office.
Mikati, who in recent weeks become more critical of Iran’s role in Lebanon, also said the government wants Iran to help Lebanon’s national unity and not take any stance backing one party against another.
As Israel expands its strikes far from Hezbollah’s bastions into areas where displaced Shiites have fled, fears rise about worsening sectarian tensions.
Iran’s support of Hezbollah has helped the group, which is the most powerful faction among Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims, dominate the country’s politics the last decade.
After meeting Mikati and Berri, Larijani said his visit’s main aim was “to loudly say that we will stand by Lebanon’s government and people.”
Asked if he was trying to thwart U.S. cease-fire mediation, Larijani said, “We are not trying to blow up any effort, but we want to solve the problem and we will stand by Lebanon, whatever the circumstances.”
An Israeli airstrike Friday on a home in the southern province of Nabatiyeh killed a mother, father and their three children, state media said, while three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province.
Israeli forces also carried out new strikes around the Lebanese capital on Friday. Three waves of air raids hit buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, setting off explosions in the area known as Dahieh.
In an earlier strike on the southeastern edge of Beirut, images taken by an Associated Press photographer captured a rocket about to strike an 11-story residential building in the Tayouneh neighborhood — then showed a blast of flame erupting from the side of the building. Much of a lower level of the building was smashed to rubble.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the bomb hit the lower part of the building, turning much of it to rubble. In each case, the Israeli military issued a warning before the attack, saying it was targeting Hezbollah facilities.
Near the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, rescue teams continued searching through the rubble Friday at the site of an Israeli strike the night before that hit a civil defense center in the town of Douris.
So far, the bodies of 14 employees and volunteers with the Lebanese Civil Defense had been recovered, the agency said, as well as some other remains that will require DNA testing.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on why the civil defense center was targeted late Thursday. Lebanon’s civil defense forces have no affiliation with Hezbollah and provide crucial rescue and medical services in one of the world’s most war-torn nations.
Israel expanded its operations in Lebanon even as it continues its campaign in the Gaza Strip, vowing to destroy Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.
Funerals were held for 11 people killed the day before in a series of Israeli airstrikes in and around the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah. Two children were among the dead, seen with the other dead by an AP reporter.
On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council’s 10 elected, nonpermanent members circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire” in Gaza.
The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether the Security Council adopts the resolution. The four other permanent members — Russia, China, Britain and France — are expected to support it or abstain.
The draft resolution, which was sent to the council’s five permanent members, reiterates the council’s demand “for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” seized during the Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. Israel says some 100 hostages of the about 250 taken are still being held, though not all are believed to be alive.
The draft, obtained Thursday by the AP, also demands immediate access for Gaza’s civilian population to humanitarian aid and services essential for their survival.
The draft resolution would also express the council’s “deep alarm over the ongoing catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza including the lack of adequate healthcare services and the state of food insecurity creating a risk of famine notably in the north.”
Israel’s attacks in Gaza have killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. The officials don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say at least half of those killed have been women and children.
Associated Press writers Mroue reported from Beirut and Rising from Bangkok. AP writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Times staff contributed to this report.
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