Ceasefire in Lebanon?

Israel wants to give Trump a “gift” in January

(Bild: APA/AP)

According to media reports, the USA has submitted a proposal for a ceasefire between the Israeli armed forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. According to reports, the Israeli government is also working on such a plan, which is to be presented at Donald Trump's inauguration.

A diplomatic breakthrough could serve as a quick foreign policy success for the US president-elect, three current and former Israeli officials told the US newspaper "Washington Post". "There is an understanding that Israel will give Trump a gift, that there will be an agreement on Lebanon in January," said one Israeli official. According to the report, the Israeli government's priorities changed rapidly after the US election.

Information went to Trump before Biden
According to the US newspaper, the Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, visited future head of state Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate during his most recent trip to the US, even before he informed the current administration of Democratic President Joe Biden in Washington about the current status of talks on a ceasefire in Lebanon.

The Israeli proposal envisages Hezbollah withdrawing behind the Litani River - around 30 kilometers from the border with Israel. In addition, Russia, which maintains relations with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and has troops stationed in the country, is to ensure that Hezbollah is not rearmed from Syria. According to the Washington Post, Russian negotiators were recently in Israel to discuss the details.

USA rejects genocide accusations against Israel
The USA has spoken out against the assessment of a UN committee that Israel's methods of warfare in the Gaza Strip fulfill the characteristics of "genocide". The UN report, according to which Israel uses starvation as a method of warfare, "we would disagree unequivocally," said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel on Thursday. "We think that kind of wording and that kind of accusation is certainly unfounded."

Patel also objected to a report by the NGO Human Rights Watch, which said, among other things, that Israeli decision-makers were committing the "war crime of forced displacement". The forced displacement of Palestinians was a "red line" for the USA, said Patel. But it was "perfectly fine and acceptable to ask civilians to evacuate a certain area while certain military operations are being conducted" and then allow them to go back home, Patel said. "We have not seen any kind of specific forced displacement."

No restriction on US military aid
On Tuesday, after a deadline set by the government in Washington expired, it declared that Israel was doing enough to deal with the humanitarian crisis. This means that the threatened restriction of US military aid will not take place. 

"Nevertheless, Israel must ensure that its measures are fully implemented and that its improvements are sustained over time," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council. In addition, it was urgently necessary for Israel to suspend the implementation of a law that prohibits the activities of the UN relief organization UNRWA.