By Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam and Matt Spetalnick
BEIRUT/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States is spearheading a new diplomatic effort to end hostilities in both Gaza and Lebanon, linking the two conflicts as part of a single initiative, seven sources familiar with the initiative told Reuters.
Details are being discussed on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, according to two Lebanese officials, two Western diplomats, a source familiar with the thinking of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, a source in Washington and another person briefed on the talks.
But as the effort gathered momentum, Israel suggested it might add a ground incursion to its growing campaign of attacks against Hezbollah. Three Israeli officials told Reuters that while the United States and France were working on ceasefire proposals, no significant progress had yet been made.
However, it was the first attempt to link the two fronts in a U.S. diplomatic effort, the seven other sources said.
The deal would include the eventual release of hostages taken by the Palestinian armed group Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to a senior Lebanese official, the source familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking and the source briefed on the talks.
The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
Violence has gripped the region since Hamas’s October 7 attack on communities in southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage in Gaza.
The attack sparked an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 41,000 people, according to local authorities.
The day after the Hamas attack, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli military positions across Lebanon’s southern border, claiming the attacks were in solidarity with Gaza.
Hezbollah has said it will not stop firing on Israel until it stops attacking Gaza, and repeated efforts by Washington to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the freedom of the hostages have failed.
Israel intensifies its attacks
Israel has significantly stepped up its military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, launching hundreds of airstrikes and killing several Hezbollah commanders as well as hundreds of others, according to Lebanese authorities.
Tens of thousands of people had already fled on both sides of the border since October, and this week they were joined by around half a million fleeing a feared Israeli ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
A senior Western diplomat told Reuters the deal sought by the United States would include an Israeli announcement of an end to major hostilities in Gaza, followed by a push for a ceasefire in Lebanon and then a political agreement that could see a demarcation of the disputed land border between Israel and Lebanon.
The diplomat said this could provide a “way out” for Hezbollah to avoid a full-scale war with Israel.
The senior Lebanese official and the source familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking said Hezbollah was open to any deal that included both Gaza and Lebanon.
The second Lebanese official said it would be impossible to stop the conflicts without a package covering both.
Discussions have focused on what would initially be a “pause” in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and a restart of stalled indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, according to a US source in Washington.
On the sidelines of the UN, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides told Reuters the United States and France were trying to reach a provisional deal to “avoid further escalation” between Israel and Hezbollah with a view to opening broader diplomatic talks.
In a sign that diplomacy was accelerating, Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced an unexpected trip to New York on Monday.
‘OPPORTUNITY’ FOR LEASING
The conflict in Gaza has been politically costly for Biden — and by extension for Vice President Kamala Harris’ Democratic presidential campaign — and the violence in Lebanon has redoubled pressure on him to find a diplomatic solution.
Biden said Wednesday that all-out war in the Middle East was possible, but that a comprehensive deal was also a possibility.
A person in Washington familiar with the matter said talks were taking place on the sidelines of the General Assembly “aimed at providing a chance for a political settlement” on the Lebanese-Israeli border and reviving a hostage deal in Gaza.
But the second US source warned that the obstacles to such a complex diplomatic proposal were enormous and that its implementation would be even more difficult.
French President Emmanuel Macron, the only Western leader to hold talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the General Assembly, called on him on Tuesday to exert his influence on Hezbollah.
French officials have said diplomacy must first focus on a cessation of hostilities, given the complexity of including Gaza in a broader deal for now. Biden and Macron were scheduled to speak on the issue later in the day.
One European diplomat said the success of a broader initiative depended heavily on Netanyahu agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza, adding: “Good luck with that, Joe.”