Israeli Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said this week that Israel had “effectively lost sovereignty” in the north after Hezbollah attacks launched from southern Lebanon drove out much of the population, underscoring the importance of cross-border attacks that could spark a larger regional war alongside the Gaza conflict.
Blinken’s comments came ahead of a trip to Paris by White House official Amos Hochstein to discuss de-escalating the escalating border dispute between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Hochstein, the White House’s top international energy and infrastructure official, has become Biden’s de facto envoy to resolve the border dispute.
Hochstein’s plans to meet with French officials were confirmed by a person close to the talks on condition of anonymity due to the diplomatic sensitivity of the matter. Lebanon became a French protectorate after World War I and France still has some influence in the country. Proposed To stop the fighting. The White House has not yet commented.
U.S. officials have been trying for months to prevent war between Israel and Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and has launched rocket attacks into northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip and launched the current war by attacking Israel on Oct. 7.
Fears have been growing in recent weeks that all-out war could break out between Israel and Hezbollah amid escalating cross-border firefights, and Israeli officials have publicly vowed to shift their military focus from Hamas to Hezbollah, a much more advanced and powerful military threat.
Firas Maqsad, a senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute, said: I wrote to XBut there is still time for the key players to find a diplomatic solution. Hochstein’s visit will likely take place on Wednesday, he said. “The diplomatic window is closing, but it’s not over yet,” he said.
Speaking Monday at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., Blinken said he didn’t believe the main parties in the border dispute — Israel, Hezbollah and Iran — actually wanted war, but that the “momentum” of a clash could make it so. U.S. officials worry that such a conflict would force the United States to come to Israel’s defense.
“Nobody wants war,” Blinken said. He said Iran, a staunch Israeli enemy, “wants to make sure that Hezbollah is not annihilated and can retain it as a card if necessary if we end up in a direct conflict with Israel.”
About 60,000 Israelis have fled the border clashes, many of whom have been living in Tel Aviv hotels for nine months. “Israel has effectively lost sovereignty over the northern part of its territory because people do not feel safe to return to their homes,” Blinken said. Fighting has also forced tens of thousands to flee southern Lebanon.
“Without doing something about the deteriorating insecurity, people will not be able to return home in safety,” Blinken said, adding that a deal to withdraw troops from the border was needed to resolve the issue.
“The Israeli-Palestinian agreement to end the Gaza ceasefire is a major step forward for the Palestinian cause,” he said.
Hochstein has met in recent weeks with Israeli officials, as well as Lebanese officials who have messaging access to Hezbollah, to negotiate a withdrawal of Hezbollah far enough from the border that Israel is comfortable with in return for Israeli withdrawal from the disputed border area and possible U.S. economic aid to southern Lebanon, analysts said.
