Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, citing two unnamed U.S. and two Israeli officials, reported in Axios last night, that Israel gave the U.S. a document last week with its conditions for a diplomatic solution to end the war against Lebanon and allow displaced civilians from both sides of the border to return to their homes. The document includes conditions that the U.S. is unlikely to accept. One of those is that the IDF be the enforcer of UN Security Council resolution 1701, and that Israel have the right to resume war anytime it deems it necessary. UNSCR 1701 ended the Israel-Hezbollah fighting in 2006 with the stipulations that Hezbollah would not have any military presence in a zone between the border with Israel and the Litani River, and that Israel would halt all offensive operations.
“We are talking about 1701 with increased enforcement. Our main message is that if the Lebanese army and UNIFIL do more, the IDF will do less and the other way around,” one Israeli official told Ravid. A U.S. official said it is highly unlikely Lebanon and the international community would agree to these conditions, which would dramatically undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty.
The U.S. and Israeli officials said that Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, who is a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sent the document to White House envoy Amos Hochstein on Oct. 17. Hochstein is in Beirut today to meet with top Lebanese officials. One of those, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, already said yesterday that Lebanon will not agree to any amendment to UNSC 1701 to allow Israel to engage in the “active enforcement.”
