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White House’s Sullivan Will Speak with Israelis about Gaza War Timetable

Palestinians inspect a building after it was hit by an Israeli bombardment on Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians inspect a building after it was hit by an Israeli bombardment on Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP)
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White House’s Sullivan Will Speak with Israelis about Gaza War Timetable

Palestinians inspect a building after it was hit by an Israeli bombardment on Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians inspect a building after it was hit by an Israeli bombardment on Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP)

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday he will discuss with Israeli officials their timetable for the war in Gaza during a visit to Israel.

Israel is under growing international pressure to do more to limit civilian Palestinian deaths in Gaza in its stated aim to destroy the Hamas militant group. Sullivan said at a Wall Street Journal forum that he will discuss with the Israelis their post-war plan for Gaza.

"The subject of how they are seeing the timetable of this war will certainly be on the agenda for my meetings," said Sullivan, who expected to visit soon.

US President Joe Biden has expressed strong support for Israel's military operation against Hamas militants in Gaza but he and his team have expressed growing concern about the death of Palestinian civilians.

Biden plans to meet on Wednesday at the White House with family members of Americans taken hostage by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed, a White House official said.

Sullivan blamed Hamas for the breakdown in an Israeli-Hamas truce of Nov. 24 to Dec. 1 because the militants refused to release more hostages.

"Hamas to this day continues to hold women, elderly people, civilians in significant numbers. And yet still, it's saying, hey, how about everybody just stops. So we believe that Israel has the right to defend itself," he said.

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Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
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Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)

Politicians in Beirut said they have not received any credible information about Washington resuming its mediation efforts towards reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon despite reports to the contrary.

Efforts came to a halt after US envoy Amos Hochstein’s last visit to Beirut three weeks ago.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri dismissed the reports as media fodder, saying nothing official has been received.

Lebanon is awaiting tangible proposals on which it can build its position, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The only credible proposal on the table is United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, whose articles must be implemented in full by Lebanon and Israel, “not just Lebanon alone,” he stressed.

Resolution 1701 was issued to end the 2006 July war between Hezbollah and Israel and calls for removing all weapons from southern Lebanon and that the only armed presence there be restricted to the army and UN peacekeepers.

Western diplomatic sources in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that Berri opposes one of the most important articles of the proposed solution to end the current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

He is opposed to the German and British participation in the proposed mechanism to monitor the implementation of resolution 1701. The other participants are the United States and France.

Other sources said Berri is opposed to the mechanism itself since one is already available and it is embodied in the UN peacekeepers, whom the US and France can join.

The sources revealed that the solution to the conflict has a foreign and internal aspect. The foreign one includes Israel, the US and Russia and seeks guarantees that would prevent Hezbollah from rearming itself. The second covers Lebanese guarantees on the implementation of resolution 1701.

Berri refused to comment on the media reports, but told Asharq Al-Awsat that this was the first time that discussions are being held about guarantees.

He added that “Israel is now in crisis because it has failed to achieve its military objectives, so it has resorted to more killing and destruction undeterred.”

He highlighted the “steadfastness of the UN peacekeepers in the South who have refused to leave their positions despite the repeated Israeli attacks.”