Israel once again puts Iran’s nuclear weapon in the spotlight to justify its offensive on Gaza and Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed this Thursday that the “supreme objective” is “to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.” The president made these statements during the graduation ceremony of a group of soldiers, a few days after his aviation responded to the attack launched by Iran on October 1 by bombing military installations of the ayatollah regime. The message comes in the midst of tensions between both countries regarding a possible escalation of war. “Stopping the nuclear program has been, and remains, our primary concern. “I have not deviated, we have not deviated and we will not deviate from this objective,” although “obviously, I cannot detail our plans to achieve this supreme objective,” Netanyahu added according to a statement from his office.
Meanwhile, the bombs prevail over diplomatic channels, despite the fact that in recent hours contacts have been strengthened to try to bring closer positions between Israel and Lebanon regarding a possible ceasefire. Netanyahu wanted to make it clear to his main ally, the United States, that his priority, ahead of the details of a possible pact, is that Israel can “comply with the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon, in such a way for residents to return safely to their homes,” according to a statement from his office.
Netanyahu, who has appreciated the mediation efforts, made this statement after receiving the White House envoy, Amos Hochstein, and security official Brett McGurk. Netanyahu, at least according to the statement, has not explicitly referred to Hochstein’s contacts in recent hours with Lebanese officials, who have expressed some optimism regarding a possible cessation of hostilities. “The agreements, documents, proposals and numbers -1701, 1559- [en referencia a resoluciones de la ONU] With all due respect, they are not the main point. The main point is our ability and determination to enforce security, thwart attacks against us and act against the weapons of our enemies,” the prime minister said later, during the military graduation.
Both US envoys have also met with the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s right-hand man, with whom they have addressed the situation in the region, including possible “security agreements.” ” around Lebanon, as well as the release of the hundred hostages who remain in Gaza, according to official Israeli sources. Washington announced that both parties are also expected to address other issues of the conflict such as the violence and humanitarian crisis in Gaza or the tension with Iran, according to official US sources told the Reuters agency.
Meanwhile, two civilians have died in the Israeli town of Haifa after the impact of a projectile from the Lebanese side. Also in Metula, on the Lebanese border, five other people – an Israeli farmer and five foreign employees – have lost their lives due to another device. This municipality in Israel was evacuated at the beginning of the war, as its location is in a military zone, but some activities are still allowed. These seven victims bring to 41 the number of civilians who have lost their lives in the current conflict due to projectiles from the Lebanese Shiite militia. Six of them were foreigners.
The missile launches have also affected other areas of Israel. Six medical workers have died after several Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, bringing the number of medical workers killed to 178 in the year-long conflict, which has also caused almost 300 injuries. Israeli troops have ordered new forced evacuations for the second consecutive day of the town of Baalbek, northeast of Beirut.
hopeful conversation
On the eve of his visit to Israel, Hochstein spoke by phone with Lebanon’s acting prime minister, Najib Mikati. That conversation gave the Lebanese head of government hope to reach a cessation of hostilities before the presidential elections in the United States next Tuesday, as he himself stated in an interview with the Lebanese television network Al Jadeed.
“Today’s call [por el miércoles] with Hochstein has suggested to me that perhaps we could reach a ceasefire in the next few hours,” Mikati assured, before explicitly mentioning the date of those elections and ensuring that he is “optimistic, but with caution.” That caution was probably what led the office of the Lebanese head of government to eliminate, in the official transcript of the interview, that period of “in the next few hours” mentioned by Mikati, to replace it with the expression “in the next few days.” , as emphasized in this Thursday’s edition of the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour.
The “dim hope of a ceasefire before the presidential elections in the United States”—that is the headline that opens the newspaper’s website—is, however, faced with the complex distribution of power in Lebanon, the vacuum in key institutions —the presidency of the country has been vacant since 2022— and, above all, with the fact that the one who has the last word to accept a ceasefire proposal is the Lebanese militia party Hezbollah, the declared enemy of Israel in the Arab country . Any commitment to stop the war in Lebanon requires, more than through the hands of an Executive that has been in office since 2022, the green light given by the Shiite militiamen, who negotiate this possible ceasefire through the president of Parliament, the also Shia Nabih Berry.
Hochstein visited Lebanon last week and there heard from local authorities that they were willing to implement UN resolution 1701, which prevents Hezbollah from maintaining weapons and men in the south of the country, something that has not been fulfilled. But Israel, which has systematically violated Lebanese airspace in recent years, is no longer satisfied with that resolution alone, according to the media. Axios.
Now, the Jewish State claims to have room for maneuver to continue acting with its troops in the neighboring country, on which it launched a ground invasion a month ago that joins the daily bombings from the air. In addition, it requires direct participation in the implementation of resolution 1701, although the mandate falls to the UN blue helmets.
The main objective of the Government led by Netanyahu is to ensure that the approximately 60,000 residents evacuated from towns in the border area due to Hezbollah attacks in solidarity with the Israeli military operation against Hamas in Gaza, where more have already died, return home safely. of 43,000 people, according to data from the authorities of the Government of the Islamist movement.
Hezbollah Conditions
In his first speech to his followers this Wednesday, Naim Qasem, the successor of the assassinated Hasan Nasrallah as secretary general of Hezbollah, did not reject this ceasefire out of hand. He did make it conditional on the conditions being “acceptable,” before considering that Israel has not yet presented “a viable agreement.”
Despite this, even this first speech by Qasem – recorded, like those of Nasrallah – sheds a timid glimmer of hope. Since the start of the Gaza war more than a year ago, Hezbollah had insisted that it would only stop its rocket attacks on northern Israel if a ceasefire was reached in that occupied Palestinian territory. However, the new general secretary of the party-militia did not make any reference to that condition this Wednesday, which suggests that the group could have abandoned such a demand.
The Lebanese Prime Minister himself confirmed this in his interview with Al Jadeed. Mikati maintains that Hezbollah no longer links the ceasefire in Lebanon to a truce in Gaza. If this resignation is confirmed, it would be a small step forward towards the end of the Israeli offensive in the Arab country, since that is one of the essential conditions for Israel: the immediate cessation of attacks against its northern region while it continues its war. on the Strip.
Both Mikati and the president of Parliament, Hezbollah’s voice at the negotiating table, have reiterated in recent days their country’s willingness to respect UN resolution 1701 in exchange for a ceasefire. That resolution, until now unfulfilled, ended the 33-day war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, but the Shiite militia has never respected its obligation to withdraw its weapons and its militiamen from Lebanon’s southern border, in the Strip. between the Litani River and the border with Israel.
Compliance with that resolution, which Israel now considers insufficient, depends on the ability of the weakened Lebanese State and its also fragile army to guarantee the withdrawal of Hezbollah and to deploy some 15,000 soldiers to contribute to this. That condition is possible, Mikati said in his interview. The head of the acting Lebanese Government thus ignores the weakness of the Armed Forces that lack even an air force and whose arsenal cannot be compared, not only with that of the Israeli army, one of the best armed in the world, but even with those among 100,000 and 150,000 projectiles that Hezbollah was estimated to possess before this war.
“The Lebanese army is prepared to strengthen its presence in southern Lebanon” and ensure that the only armed men in that area are under state control, Mikati has assured. In a context of war, acute economic crisis and serious political paralysis in Lebanon, the 200 million dollars committed at the international conference to support Lebanon held in Paris last week do not seem sufficient to strengthen the Arab country’s army and allow it to counter Hezbollah’s military hegemony, also supported by its significant power in Lebanese institutions.
