عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Lebanon’s Berri: Resolution 1701 Stands Unchanged

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit to Beirut (AFP)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit to Beirut (AFP)
TT
TT

Lebanon’s Berri: Resolution 1701 Stands Unchanged

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit to Beirut (AFP)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit to Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon is monitoring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to US President Joe Biden’s push for a ceasefire in southern Lebanon.

Biden has sent advisors Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk to Tel Aviv to discuss the matter with Netanyahu, marking what Lebanese officials see as the last chance for progress before the US presidential election on Nov. 5.

Lebanese leaders, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, are cautious about predicting results.

Mikati did not comment after his recent meetings with US advisors.

However, Berri highlighted Lebanon’s prior agreement with Hochstein to a ceasefire, deploying the Lebanese army in the south, and enforcing UN Resolution 1701.

Berri reaffirmed that Lebanon won’t alter these terms, saying, “What’s agreed is agreed; Resolution 1701 stands unchanged.”

The speaker clarified that Lebanon has fulfilled its commitments and is now waiting for Netanyahu’s response, noting that Lebanon is ready to implement the ceasefire if Hochstein can secure Netanyahu’s agreement.

“The ball is now in Netanyahu’s court,” Berri said, pointing out that Netanyahu has previously agreed to and then withdrawn from ceasefire deals.

According to sources, Hezbollah is fully behind Berri’s mandate for a ceasefire.

Hezbollah’s newly appointed Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, recently confirmed the party’s support.

Qassem is closely following developments with the party’s military leadership, while Hezbollah’s MPs continue discussions with other blocs to clarify their position.

Lebanese sources stressed that reaching a ceasefire is critical and must happen as soon as possible, asserting that Netanyahu should not leverage the situation in Gaza as a pretext to avoid a southern ceasefire.

As Biden’s envoys prepare to meet with Netanyahu, Lebanese officials remain focused on whether this effort will result in an agreement.

The ongoing clashes near the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, where Hezbollah is actively resisting Israeli advances, have intensified the situation, making the outcome of these discussions crucial.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

US Tracking Nearly 500 Incidents of Civilian Harm During Israel’s Gaza War

People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
TT

US Tracking Nearly 500 Incidents of Civilian Harm During Israel’s Gaza War

People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)

US State Department officials have identified nearly 500 potential incidents of civilian harm during Israel's military operations in Gaza involving US-furnished weapons, but have not taken further action on any of them, three sources, including a US official familiar with the matter, said this week.

The incidents - some of which might have violated international humanitarian law, according to the sources - have been recorded since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Gaza war started. They are being collected by the State Department's Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, a formal mechanism for tracking and assessing any reported misuse of US-origin weapons.

State Department officials gathered the incidents from public and non-public sources, including media reporting, civil society groups and foreign government contacts.

The mechanism, which was established in August 2023 to be applied to all countries that receive US arms, has three stages: incident analysis, policy impact assessment, and coordinated department action, according to a December internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.

None of the Gaza cases had yet reached the third stage of action, said a former US official familiar with the matter. Options, the former official said, could range from working with Israel's government to help mitigate harm, to suspending existing arms export licenses or withholding future approvals.

The Washington Post first reported the nearly 500 incidents on Wednesday.

The Biden administration has said it is reasonable to assess that Israel has breached international law in the conflict, but assessing individual incidents was "very difficult work," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.

"We are conducting those investigations, and we are conducting them thoroughly, and we are conducting them aggressively, but we want to get to the right answer, and it's important that we not jump to a pre-ordained result, and that we not skip any of the work," Miller said, adding that Washington consistently raises concerns over civilian harm with Israel.

The administration of President Joe Biden has long said it is yet to definitively assess an incident in which Israel has violated international humanitarian law during its operation in Gaza.

John Ramming Chappell, advocacy and legal adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said the Biden administration "has consistently deferred to Israeli authorities and declined to do its own investigations."

"The US government hasn't done nearly enough to investigate how the Israeli military uses weapons made in the United States and paid for by US taxpayers," he said.

The civilian harm process does not only look at potential violations of international law but at any incident where civilians are killed or injured and where US arms are implicated, and looks at whether this could have been avoided or reduced, said one US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A review of an incident can lead to a recommendation that a unit needs more training or different equipment, as well as more severe consequences, the official said.

Israel's military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave's health authorities.

The latest episode of bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.