US Working on Lebanon Truce, Sources Say, as Israel Bombards Baalbek

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley, on October 30, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley, on October 30, 2024. (AFP)
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US Working on Lebanon Truce, Sources Say, as Israel Bombards Baalbek

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley, on October 30, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley, on October 30, 2024. (AFP)

US mediators are working on a proposal to halt hostilities between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, starting with a 60-day ceasefire, two sources said on Wednesday, as Israel pressed its offensive by bombarding Lebanon's historic city of Baalbek.

The sources - a person briefed on the talks and a senior diplomat working on Lebanon - told Reuters the two-month period would be used to finalize full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006 to keep southern Lebanon free of arms outside state control.

The White House said that officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein would visit Israel on Thursday. A US official had said they would be there to discuss a range of issues "including Gaza, Lebanon, hostages, Iran and broader regional matters".

Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem said the Iran-backed armed group would agree to a ceasefire within certain parameters if Israel wanted to stop the war, but that Israel had so far not agreed to any proposal that could be discussed.

It was Qassem's first speech as secretary-general, a day after Hezbollah announced his election to the post after Israel assassinated the group's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The latest ceasefire efforts come as Israel's operation against the heavily armed, Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon continues to expand.

Its army launched heavy airstrikes on Wednesday on the eastern city of Baalbek, famed for its Roman temples, and nearby villages, security sources told Reuters, following an Israeli evacuation order. Tens of thousands of Lebanese, including many who had sought shelter in Baalbek from other areas, fled after the warning was issued.

Bilal Raad, regional head of the Lebanese civil defense, said the largely volunteer force had been calling on residents to leave via megaphones after receiving phone calls from someone identifying themselves as being from the Israeli military.

"People are all over each other, the whole city is in a panic trying to figure out where to go, there's a huge traffic jam," he said ahead of the bombardment.

Some of the areas they are fleeing to are already full of people displaced earlier by the Hezbollah-Israel conflict.

Antoine Habchi, a lawmaker representing Christian-majority Deir al-Ahmar to the northwest of Baalbek, said more than 10,000 people were already sheltering in homes, schools and churches.

"We welcome everyone, of course, but we need immediate government help so that these people don't stay out in the cold," he told Reuters.

Lebanon's health ministry said at least 11 people had been killed in an Israeli bombing of one town in the Bekaa Valley region where Baalbek is located but did not have an immediate toll for the entire day's strikes.

It said 2,822 people have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Lebanon since October 2023. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced.

HEZBOLLAH FUEL STORES HIT

Following the airstrikes, the Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah fuel reservoirs in the Bekaa. A Lebanese security source told Reuters that a massive explosion followed by a huge column of black smoke had been caused by strikes on Hezbollah's fuel stores.

Responding to a question about Israel's bombardment of Baalbek, the US State Department reiterated on Wednesday that Washington supports Israel's right to go after legitimate Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. But it said Israel must do so in a way that does not threaten civilians, critical civilian infrastructure and significant cultural heritage sites.

For a third straight day, Hezbollah reported intense fighting with Israeli forces in or around the southern town of Khiyam - the deepest Israel's troops are reported to have penetrated into Lebanon since fighting escalated five weeks ago.

Hezbollah also said that it had targeted a military camp southeast of Tel Aviv in Israel with missiles.

Resolution 1701 has been the cornerstone of talks to end the past year of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted along the border in parallel with the war in Gaza and has dramatically intensified since late September.

"We'd like to reiterate that we seek a diplomatic resolution that fully implements 1701 and gets both Israeli and Lebanese citizens back to their homes on both sides of the border," said Sama Habib, spokesperson at the US Embassy in Beirut, when asked about the reported proposal.

US envoy Hochstein told reporters in Beirut earlier this month that better mechanisms for enforcement were needed as neither Israel nor Lebanon had fully implemented the 18-year-old resolution.

The two sources told Reuters that the 60-day truce has replaced a proposal last month by the United States and other countries that envisioned a ceasefire for 21 days as a prelude to 1701 coming into full force.

Both, however, cautioned that the deal could still fall through. "There is an earnest push to get to a ceasefire, but it is still hard to get it to materialize," the diplomat said.

The push for a ceasefire for Lebanon comes days before the US presidential election and alongside a similar diplomatic drive to end hostilities in Gaza.



Syria Hails US Lifting of Assad-era Sanctions

People walk past a billboard displaying portraits of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past a billboard displaying portraits of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (AFP)
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Syria Hails US Lifting of Assad-era Sanctions

People walk past a billboard displaying portraits of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past a billboard displaying portraits of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (AFP)

Syria on Saturday hailed the Trump administration's lifting of US sanctions, as Washington looks to open a new chapter in its relations with Damascus.

US President Donald Trump surprised many with his announcement of the new policy on a Gulf tour earlier this month, during which he shook hands with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Shara.

Trump said he wanted to give the war-torn country's new rulers "a chance at greatness" after their overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.

"The Syrian Arab Republic welcomes the decision from the American government to lift the sanctions imposed on Syria and its people for long years," a foreign ministry statement said.

It described the move as "a positive step in the right direction to reduce humanitarian and economic struggles in the country".

US sanctions were first imposed on Syria in 1979 under the rule of Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez. They were sharply expanded after the bloody repression of anti-government protests in 2011, which triggered the country's civil war.

Washington imposed sweeping sanctions on financial transactions with Syria and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction as long as Assad remained in power.

Since Assad's ouster, the new administration has been looking to build relations with the West and roll back sanctions, but some governments had expressed reluctance, pointing to the extremist past of leading figures.

On Friday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said his country was "implementing authorizations to encourage new investment into Syria".

The sanctions relief extends to Syria's new government with conditions that the country not provide safe haven for terrorist organizations and ensure security for religious and ethnic minorities, the US Treasury Department said.

Concurrently, the US State Department issued a 180-day waiver for the Caesar Act to make sure sanctions do not obstruct foreign investment into Syria.

The 2020 legislation severely sanctioned any entity or company cooperating with the ousted government.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the waiver would "facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria".

The authorization covers new investment in Syria, provision of financial services and transactions involving Syrian petroleum products.

"Today's actions represent the first step on delivering on the president's vision of a new relationship between Syria and the United States," Rubio said.

Syria's 14-year civil war killed over half a million people and destroyed much of the country's infrastructure.

Rubio said the lifting of sanctions aims at permitting favorable investments into the country and promote "recovery and reconstruction efforts".

"The president has made clear his expectation that relief will be followed by prompt action by the Syrian government on important policy priorities," he added.

The European Union announced the lifting of its sanctions on Syria earlier this month.

The move primarily targets Syria's banking sector, which was previously barred from accessing the international capital market. It also includes the unfreezing of the assets of Syrian central bank.

Analysts say a full lifting of sanctions may still take time, as some restrictions are acts that need to be reversed by Congress, while Syrian authorities need to ensure an attractive environment for foreign investment.