U. S. special envoy Amos Hochstein announced Wednesday that his efforts to prevent an all-out war between Hezbollah, Iran’s proxie, and the State of Israel had failed.
Hochstein, one of President Joe Biden’s most sensible advisers, arrived in the region on Monday for talks in Israel and Lebanon.
The U. S. envoy first met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, President Isaac Herzog and senior Israeli officials.
Hochstein then traveled to Beirut, where he met with interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Hezbollah-linked parliament speaker Nabih Berri before returning to Jerusalem to discuss the effects of his efforts.
Israel has warned that its military forces will push Hezbollah’s terrorist army across the Litani River if diplomatic efforts fail.
The solution also called for the status quo of a demilitarized zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River (which meant that Hezbollah had to retreat north of the Litani River); deployment of Lebanese army forces in southern Lebanon; strengthening the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL “peacekeepers”) to the agreement; and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Israeli aspect of the Blue Line, a foreign line marking the border between Israel and Lebanon.
Hezbollah has never respected the directives of the agreement, nor has the Lebanese army, which is in favour of enforcing them with UNIFIL.
As soon as the war against Israel started on October 7 by Hamas terrorists from Gaza broke out, Hezbollah launched its own attacks the next day, forcing the evacuation of some 80,000 Israelis from their homes in the north.
These evacuees remain internal refugees and there is no end in sight to the conflict.
Last Tuesday (June 18), the commander of the Northern Command, MG Ori Gordin, and the head of the Operations Directorate (J3), MG Oded Basiuk, approved the operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon and a joint assessment of the scenario in the Northern Order.
“We have been in a state of war for more than eight months,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Herzi Halevi said Wednesday during a stopover at an air defense station on the northern border.
Israel warns of all-out war in reaction to Hezbollah’s drone propaganda film over sensitive sites in Haifa
“Hezbollah has released a video that shows a capability that we knew about and that we are creating responses to manage those functions and others that, when the time comes, you will see them implemented when needed,” Halevi said, referring to surveillance footage from Haifa and its surroundings released earlier this week by the terror group.
“We have infinitely greater capabilities, of course, of which I think the enemy knows some. We will face them at the right time.
“Our control is to see that today we defend, we win, the next day we take the population back to a much safer reality, and with them we also build, repair and make this beautiful region more powerful than it was before the war. . . »
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