Senior US envoy presses for a diplomatic solution to Israel-Hezbollah conflict during talks in Beirut

Senior US envoy presses for a diplomatic solution to Israel-Hezbollah conflict during talks in Beirut
US special envoy Amos Hochstein (R) leaves the government palace in Beirut, accompanied by Lebanese protocal official Lahoud Lahoud (L), after his meeting with Lebanon's caretaker prime minister. (AFP)
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Updated 04 March 2024
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Senior US envoy presses for a diplomatic solution to Israel-Hezbollah conflict during talks in Beirut

Senior US envoy presses for a diplomatic solution to Israel-Hezbollah conflict during talks in Beirut
  • Temporary ceasefire is not enough, says presidential advisor Amos Hochstein, as he warns of risks should fighting continue to escalate

BEIRUT: Senior US envoy envoy Amos Hochstein said during a visit to Beirut on Monday that a diplomatic solution is the key to ending nearly five months of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel that broke out after the start of the war in Gaza.

Hochstein, a senior advisor to President Joe Biden, held meetings with Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and several other political figures.

His visit came amid escalating Israeli threats of a war against Lebanon to force Hezbollah to retreat, and to press Lebanese authorities to implement the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted in 2006 with the aim of resolving the war that year between Israel and Hezbollah.

It also came amid further escalations in fighting along the southern Lebanese front, including reported attempts by Israel to infiltrate Lebanese territory and resultant confrontations with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah said “a hostile Israeli force attempted to infiltrate Lebanese territory in the Qatamoun Valley area opposite Rmeish on Sunday night and was targeted with rockets.”

An Israeli unit of the Golani Brigade reportedly tried to enter Lebanon from the direction of Khirbet Zarit, near the Lebanese town of Ramia, and Hezbollah responded by targeting the unit with a large explosive device.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah intensified strikes against Israeli sites. An attack on the Margaliot settlement left one person dead and 10 injured, two of them critically. According to the Israeli ambulance service, an anti-tank missile was fired at the settlement from Lebanon. Israeli media reported that the dead and injured were foreign workers.

In a separate incident, Hezbollah said they targeted “Zarait Barracks and its surroundings” early on Monday with artillery fire.

Elsewhere, the Israeli army reportedly fired shots in the air in the vicinity of farmers spraying crops near the town of Wazzani in Marjayoun district. Israeli forces also targeted the towns of Hula and Markab, overlooking Wadi Hunayn and the Margaliot settlement, with phosphorus and smoke bombs, and Israeli warplanes carried out raids on the outskirts of the town of Shihin.

Hochstein previously visited Beirut in January as part of US efforts to broker ceasefires in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon. Lebanese authorities him to return in February, when he visited Tel Aviv, but that did not happen.

In the meantime there have been no dramatic shifts in the balance of military power in southern Lebanon, despite the growing intensity of confrontations and expansions of targets by both the Israeli army and Hezbollah.

Lebanese authorities have said Israel must fully implement the provisions of UN Resolution 1701 by halting attacks, addressing disputed border points, of which six remain, withdrawing from the occupied Shebaa Farms and Kfarchouba hills, and respecting international borders. Hezbollah has also linked the end of hostilities on the southern front to the end of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, Hochstein noted that the friction along the border between Israel and Lebanon had increased in recent weeks.

“Escalation of violence is in no one’s interest and there is no such thing as a limited war,” he said after his meeting the Berri, who is an ally of Hezbollah. “A temporary ceasefire is not enough. A limited war is not containable.”

A truce in Gaza would not automatically trigger peace in southern Lebanon, he said, but he added that he remains “hopeful” that a diplomatic solution to the border conflict can be achieved.

“It does not necessarily happen that when you have a ceasefire in Gaza, it just automatically extends” to Lebanon, Hochstein said.

The US “remains committed to advancing lasting security solutions, achieved through a diplomatic process that will allow Lebanese residents to safely return to their homes, as well as allowing Israelis to return to their homes safely in northern Israel,” he added.

The aim of his visit was “to find a diplomatic solution to end the conflict on Lebanon’s southern borders” he said, adding: “Our position on the hostilities has been consistent and remains clear.”

Washington “believes a diplomatic solution is the only way to end the current hostilities along the Blue Line that will achieve a lasting, fair security arrangement between Lebanon and Israel,” Hochstein said.

“The people of Lebanon and Israel have the right to live in peace and prosperity. Let me acknowledge the global unity of this position.

“An important part of any understanding will include international support for Lebanon, for the Lebanese people and for strengthening its institutions, military, civilian and the economy. But this can only start when we can reach a way forward.”

The US continues to work with the government in Lebanon in pursuit of such a diplomatic solution that allows for prosperity and security, Hochstein said.

“What we want to see is a diplomatic solution here on the border … to ensure that there is a cessation of hostilities and that precautions are made so that everybody, on both sides of the line, can return to their homes safely and securely and have a future that is free of fear.”


UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
Updated 22 November 2024
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UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started
  • UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013

UNITED NATIONS: The arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza does not bar UN officials from meeting with him in the course of their work, the UN said Thursday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started as a result of the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, although there have been contacts with the Israeli leader by UN officials in the region.
Guterres has been declared persona non grata by Israel, which accuses him of being biased in favor of the Palestinians. So talks between him and Netanyahu are very unlikely.
After the warrants issued Thursday by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013.
“The rule is that there should not be any contacts between UN officials and individuals subject to arrest warrants,” Dujarric said.
But limited contacts are allowed “to address fundamental issues, operational issues, and our ability to carry out our mandates,” he added.
In late October, at a summit of the BRICS countries in Russia, Guterres met with President Vladimir Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the ICP over the war in Ukraine.
That meeting, during which Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the Russian invasion, angered Ukraine.


Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
Updated 22 November 2024
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Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
  • Palestinian Authority calls on UN member states to ensure the warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who are accused of war crimes, are acted upon
  • The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, says decision is ‘binding’ on all members of the International Criminal Court

LONDON: Palestinians welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court on Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant.

The Palestinian Authority said the court’s decision comes as Israeli forces continue to bomb Gaza in a conflict that has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, and it hopes the ruling will help to restore faith in international law, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Netanyahu and Gallant are the first leading officials from a nation allied with the West against whom the ICC has issued arrest warrants since the court was established in July 2002. It also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas. Israeli authorities said in August he was killed by their forces in an attack the previous month, though Hamas have not confirmed this.

All three men are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their actions during the war in Gaza or the Oct. 7 attacks.

The PA said the decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant was important because Palestinians “are being subjected to genocide and war crimes, represented by starvation as a method of warfare,” as well as mass displacement and collective punishment.

The PA, which signed up to the ICC in 2015, called on all UN member states to ensure the warrants are acted upon and to “cut off contact and meetings with the international wanted men, Netanyahu and Gallant.” Israel is not a member of the ICC.

The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, posted a message on social media platform X on Thursday in which he described the court’s decisions as “binding” on all those who have signed up to it.

“These decisions are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute (the treaty that established the ICC), which includes all EU member states,” he wrote.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has spent 17 years in office during three spells in charge since 1996, denounced the decision by the ICC to issue the warrant as “antisemitic.”

He said it would “have serious consequences for the court and those who will cooperate with it in this matter.”


Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border
Updated 21 November 2024
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Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

MASNAA, Lebanon: Stuck in no man’s land on the war-hit Lebanon-Syria border, cab driver Fadi Slika now scrapes a living ferrying passengers between two deep craters left by Israeli air strikes.

The journey is just 2 km, but Slika has no other choice — his taxi is his only source of income.

“My car is stuck between craters: I can’t reach Lebanon or return to Syria. Meanwhile, we’re under threat of (Israeli) bombardment,” said the 56-year-old.

“I work and sleep here between the two holes,” he said.

A dual Lebanese-Syrian national, Slika has been living in his car, refusing to abandon it when it broke down until a mechanic brought a new engine.

His taxi is one of the few that has been operating between the two craters since Israeli strikes in October effectively blocked traffic on the Masnaa crossing.

The bombed area has become a boon for drivers of tuk-tuks, who can navigate the craters easily. 

A makeshift stall, the Al-Joura (pit in Arabic) rest house, and a shop are set up nearby.

Slika went for 12 days without work while waiting for his taxi to be fixed. The car has become his home. A warm blanket covers its rear seats against eastern Lebanon’s cold winters, and a big bag of pita bread sits on the passenger side.

Before being stranded, Slika made about $100 for trips from Beirut to Damascus.

Now, an average fare between the craters is just $5.50 each way, though he said he charged more.

On Sept. 23, Israel intensified its aerial bombing of Lebanon and later sent in ground troops, nearly a year after Hezbollah initiated limited exchanges of fire in support of Hamas amid the Gaza war.

Since then, Israel has bombed several land crossings with Syria out of service. 

It accuses Hezbollah of using what are key routes for people fleeing the war in Lebanon to transfer weapons from Syria.

Amid the hardship of the conflict, more than 610,000 people have fled from Lebanon to Syria, mostly Syrians, according to Lebanese authorities.

Undeterred by attacks, travelers still trickle through Masnaa, traversing the two craters that measure about 10 meters deep and 30 meters wide.

On the other side of the road, Khaled Khatib, 46, was fixing his taxi, its tires splattered with mud and hood coated in dust.

“After the first strike, I drove from Syria and parked my car before the crater. When the second strike hit, I got stuck between the two holes,” he said, sweat beading as he looked under the hood.

“We used to drive people from Damascus to Beirut. Now, we take them from one crater to another.”

Khatib doesn’t charge passengers facing tough times, he said, adding he had been displaced from southern Beirut, hammered by Israeli raids since September. He moved back to his hometown near the Masnaa crossing.

Despite harsh times, a sense of camaraderie reigns.

The drivers “became like brothers. We eat together at the small stall every day ... and we help each other fix our cars,” he said.

Mohamed Yassin moved his coffee stall from the Masnaa crossing closer to the pit after the strike, offering breakfast, lunch, and coffee. “We try to help people as much as possible,” he said.

Farther from the Lebanese border, travelers crossed the largest of the two crevasses, wearing plastic coverings on their shoes to avoid slipping in the mud.

A cab driver on a mound called out, “Taxi to Damascus!” while tuk-tuks and trucks ferried passengers, bags, and mattresses across.

Nearby, Aida Awda Mubarak, a Syrian mother of six, haggled with a tuk-tuk driver over the $1 fare.

The 52-year-old said she was out of work and needed to see her son after the east Lebanon town where he lives was hit by Israeli strikes.

“Sometimes we just can’t afford to pay for a tuk-tuk or a cab,” she said.


Netanyahu says ICC warrant won’t stop Israel defending itself

Netanyahu says ICC warrant won’t stop Israel defending itself
Updated 21 November 2024
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Netanyahu says ICC warrant won’t stop Israel defending itself

Netanyahu says ICC warrant won’t stop Israel defending itself
  • “No outrageous anti-Israel decision will prevent us — and it will not prevent me — from continuing to defend our country in every way,” Netanyahu said
  • The premier is accused alongside his former defense minister Yoav Gallant of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity“

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court over his conduct of the Gaza war would not stop him defending Israel.
“No outrageous anti-Israel decision will prevent us — and it will not prevent me — from continuing to defend our country in every way,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “We will not yield to pressure,” he vowed.
The premier is accused alongside his former defense minister Yoav Gallant of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
He described Thursday’s decision as a “dark day in the history of nations.”
“The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was established to protect humanity, has today become the enemy of humanity,” he said, adding that the accusations were “utterly baseless.”
Israel has been fighting in Gaza since October 2023, when a cross-border attack by Hamas militants resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Its retaliatory campaign has led to the deaths of 44,056 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
UN agencies have warned of a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including possible famine, due to a lack of food and medicines.
The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
Netanyahu said the court was accusing Israel of “fictitious crimes,” while ignoring “the real war crimes, horrific war crimes being committed against us and against many others around the world.”
In addition to Netanyahu and Gallant, the court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military wing chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel said was killed in an air strike last July.
Hamas has never confirmed his death.
Netanyahu mocked the court’s decision to issue a warrant for “the body of Mohammed Deif.”


Italy says would have to arrest Netanyahu after ICC warrant

Italy says would have to arrest Netanyahu after ICC warrant
Updated 21 November 2024
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Italy says would have to arrest Netanyahu after ICC warrant

Italy says would have to arrest Netanyahu after ICC warrant
  • Crosetto believed the ICC was “wrong” to put Netanyahu and Gallant on the same level as Hamas
  • It was not a political choice but Italy was bound as a member of the ICC to act on the court’s warrants

ROME: Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Thursday his country would be obliged to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited, after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant.
The ICC earlier also issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
Crosetto — whose country holds the G7 rotating presidency this year — told RAI television’s Porta a Porta program that he believed the ICC was “wrong” to put Netanyahu and Gallant on the same level as Hamas.
But he said that if Netanyahu or Gallant “were to come to Italy, we would have to arrest them.”
It was not a political choice but Italy was bound as a member of the ICC to act on the court’s warrants, Crosetto said.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani had earlier been more cautious, saying: “We support the ICC, while always remembering that the court must play a legal role and not a political role.
“We will evaluate together with our allies what to do and how to interpret this decision.”