Mikati: Lebanon Ready to Apply UN Resolution on Border if Israel Complies

Lebanon’s Prime Minister-Designate Najib Mikati speaks after meeting with President Michel Aoun, at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon August 16, 2021. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
Lebanon’s Prime Minister-Designate Najib Mikati speaks after meeting with President Michel Aoun, at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon August 16, 2021. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
TT

Mikati: Lebanon Ready to Apply UN Resolution on Border if Israel Complies

Lebanon’s Prime Minister-Designate Najib Mikati speaks after meeting with President Michel Aoun, at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon August 16, 2021. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
Lebanon’s Prime Minister-Designate Najib Mikati speaks after meeting with President Michel Aoun, at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon August 16, 2021. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS

Lebanon is ready to implement a UN resolution that would help end Hezbollah's cross-border attacks on Israel if Israel also complies and withdraws from disputed territory, Lebanon's prime minister said Friday.

The frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, raising fears of a broader conflagration.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, called for the removal of armed personnel south of Lebanon's Litani River, except for UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army and state security forces.

The solution to the current cross-border hostilities "is the implementation of international resolutions", including Resolution 1701, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement.

"We are totally ready to commit to their implementation, on condition the Israeli side does the same, and withdraws -- according to the international laws and resolutions -- from occupied territory," he added.

Mikati's office said the premier was referring territory claimed by Lebanon that remains occupied following Israel's withdrawal from the country's south in 2000: the disputed Shebaa Farms, the Kfarshuba hills and the Lebanese side of the village of Ghajar.

Despite holding sway over swathes of the country's south, Hezbollah has not had a visible military presence on Lebanon's southern border since the end of the 2006 war.

A diplomatic source, requesting anonymity, told AFP that the proposals to avert another all-out conflict include settling the disputed land border between Israel and Lebanon and encouraging Hezbollah withdraw its fighters from near the frontier.

On Monday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna met with senior officials in Beirut, a day after visiting Israel and the occupied West Bank, as part of efforts to de-escalate border tensions, while Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin urged Hezbollah to avoid provoking a "wider conflict".

Since hostilities began in October, more than 140 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also more than a dozen civilians, three of them journalists, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, four civilians and seven soldiers have been killed, according to officials.



Witkoff Says Israel, Hamas Should Benefit from Release of Edan

Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, lift placards and national flags calling on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, on May 13, 2025, during the visit to Israel of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, lift placards and national flags calling on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, on May 13, 2025, during the visit to Israel of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
TT

Witkoff Says Israel, Hamas Should Benefit from Release of Edan

Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, lift placards and national flags calling on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, on May 13, 2025, during the visit to Israel of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, lift placards and national flags calling on the US to intervene for their release, in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, on May 13, 2025, during the visit to Israel of US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

The US administration is pressuring Tel Aviv to move toward a deal to end the war in Gaza, according to Hamas officials and to Israeli sources not linked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While Steve Witkoff, US special envoy to the Middle East, expressed a preference for a diplomatic resolution for the return of Israeli hostages, Netanyahu said there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza.

On Monday, Hamas released an Israeli-American soldier, Edan Alexander, who had been held hostage in Gaza for more than 19 months, offering a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration that could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire with Israel.

A day later, US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler and Witkoff met families of Israeli hostages for almost two hours in Tel Aviv.

The Hostages Families Forum, which represents many families of those held in Gaza, said Witkoff told them that “everyone would prefer to see a diplomatic solution,” noting that most captivity survivors have been released through diplomatic means.

In the past few days, the Israeli government backed the so-called Witkoff plan that was proposed by the US envoy before Edan’s release, and which did not center on a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The plan was rejected by Hamas.

On Tuesday, the Israeli Maariv newspaper citing unnamed senior officials, said the US no longer considers Witkoff’s original proposal the key to a Gaza ceasefire agreement, and is now pushing forward with revised solutions.

Following their meeting with the families of Israeli hostages, Boehler and Witkoff headed to Doha, Qatar, where they will join Trump. Qatar has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.

Yedioth Ahronoth said Boehler and Witkoff’s trip to Qatar aims to enter effective negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages and end the war in Gaza.

Maariv said that during a meeting with Netanyahu on Monday, Witkoff reportedly presented a new initiative aimed at creating a pathway toward ending the war.

Officials said this updated vision is based on the idea that a long-term, comprehensive deal could lead to a permanent ceasefire - one that might compel Hamas to show flexibility and accept terms.

In return, the Israeli PM said there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza.

In comments released by Netanyahu’s office Tuesday from a visit to wounded soldiers the previous day, the prime minister said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. ... It means destroying Hamas.”

Any ceasefire deal reached would be temporary, the prime minister said. If Hamas were to say they would release more hostages, “we’ll take them, and then we’ll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said.

“We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end,” he added.