Biden Energy Adviser to Discuss Lebanon Border Issues on Israel Trip

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP)
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP)
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Biden Energy Adviser to Discuss Lebanon Border Issues on Israel Trip

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP)
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, gestures as he meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP)

President Joe Biden's energy security adviser Amos Hochstein was traveling to Israel on Monday to discuss issues related to the northern border with Lebanon, including how to stop the Gaza conflict from spreading, a US official said.

"This trip builds on Hochstein's visit to Beirut earlier this month where he made clear the United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon," the official said.

"While in Israel, Hochstein will emphasize that restoring calm along Israel's northern border is of utmost importance to the United States and it should be a top priority for both Israel and Lebanon."

Hochstein helped to finalize a maritime demarcation deal last year between Israel and Lebanon, bringing a measure of accommodation between the enemy states as they eyed offshore energy exploration.

In the months before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants who run the Gaza Strip, Hochstein said the United States was exploring the possibility of resolving the longstanding border dispute between Lebanon and Israel.

However, tensions have escalated along the border since cross-border raids that Israel says killed 1,200 people. The Israeli response - a bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza - has killed more than 12,300 people as it entered its seventh week, according to health officials in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has attacked Israeli troops at the Lebanese border and Israel has launched air and artillery strikes against southern Lebanon, in the deadliest violence since the two sides fought a war in 2006.



ISIS Kills Five Kurdish Fighters in Eastern Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
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ISIS Kills Five Kurdish Fighters in Eastern Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)

The ISIS militant group said on Monday it killed five Kurdish fighters in an attack in eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor, according to the group's news agency.

The spokesperson for Syria's Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces Farhad Shami confirmed to Reuters that five members were killed in the attack which he described as "one of deadliest" against the group in a while.

Deir Ezzor city was captured by the ISIS group in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.

Former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called “caliphate” over a quarter of Syria and Iraq in 2014 before he was killed in a raid by US special forces in northwest Syria in 2019 as the group collapsed.

It has been recently trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia.