France suggests Israel-Lebanon ceasefire talks and Hezbollah disengagement

France has sent a formal proposal to Beirut with the goal of resolving the disputed boundary between Lebanon and Israel and halting hostilities with Israel. The proposal calls for militants, including the elite unit of Hezbollah, to retreat 10 km (6 miles) from the border.

The strategy attempts to put a stop to border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. The Gaza war and the hostilities are occurring concurrently, which is adding to the fear of a catastrophic, all-out conflict.

Last week, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne presented the document—the first formal plan sent to Beirut after weeks of Western mediation—to top Lebanese state officials, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati, according to four senior Lebanese and three French officials.

Declaring as its goals the avoidance of a conflict “that risks spiralling out of control” and the enforcement of “a potential ceasefire, when the conditions are right” as its final goals. Talks about defining the disputed border between Israel and Lebanon are being considered.

A Hezbollah politician responding to queries for this story reaffirmed Hezbollah’s stance that formal de-escalation talks cannot begin until the Gaza War is over.

The specifics of the French written plan that was delivered to Lebanon have not yet been made public, despite some information on comparable mediation attempts by US Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein having been making the rounds in recent weeks.

The three-step strategy calls for a de-escalation procedure that lasts for ten days, culminating in border talks.

The plan has reportedly been presented to the governments of Hezbollah, Israel, and Lebanon, according to a French diplomatic source.

France and Lebanon have a shared history. It is home to 20,000 people as well as about 800 soldiers who are part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

“We put forth suggestions. Sejourne said at a press conference on Monday, “We are in contact with the Americans and it’s important that we bring together all initiatives and build peace.”

According to the plan, Israel will stop conducting military operations against Lebanese armed organizations, including Israeli bombings in Lebanon.

During the most recent wars, a number of non-state organizations, including Palestinian factions, have launched attacks on Israel from south Lebanon; nonetheless, Hezbollah remains the dominating force in the region, with a fighting force that is generally believed to be superior to the Lebanese army.

According to the plan, Lebanese armed organizations would destroy all buildings and infrastructure near the border and remove combat forces, including Hezbollah’s elite Radwan fighters and military hardware such antitank systems, at least 10 kilometers north of the border.

Even with such a withdrawal, Hezbollah fighters might still be significantly closer to the border than the UN resolution that called for a 30 km (19 mi) withdrawal to Lebanon’s Litani River to end a 2006 war with Israel.

One Western official with knowledge of the two-page proposal stated that the shorter pullback was a compromise more acceptable to Hezbollah than a retreat to the Litani and would help ensure that rockets did not reach areas in northern Israel that have been targeted by anti-tank missiles.

In the southern border region of Lebanon, which serves as a political stronghold for Hezbollah and where its fighters have long since blended in during peaceful times, up to 15,000 Lebanese army forces would be stationed.

Senior Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters that the organization would not discuss “any matter related to the situation in the south before the halt of the aggression on Gaza” in response to a question concerning the idea.

Fadlallah went on, “The enemy is not in the position to impose conditions,” refusing to elaborate on the specifics of the plan or if Hezbollah had accepted it.

According to a Lebanese official, the document combines concepts that were discussed during meetings with Western envoys and was given to Hezbollah. The Lebanese official stated that after Beirut objected to some aspects of the paper, French officials informed them it was not final.

Such a suggestion, according to an Israeli official, had been received and was under consideration by the administration.

Though Hochstein has been at the center of the operations, Hezbollah had rejected ideas from him, but it had also maintained the door open to diplomacy.

A State Department official responded to a request for comment on this story by saying that the US “continues to explore all diplomatic options with our Israeli and Lebanese counterparts to restore calm and avoid escalation.” A request for comment was not immediately answered by the White House.

The Lebanese official stated that a number of things caused anxiety in Beirut, such as the demand that armed organizations destroy buildings and other structures along the border. The official claimed that this demand was ambiguously worded and might be used to demand actions against civilian institutions linked with Hezbollah.

Since the fighting started on October 8, tens of thousands of people have left their homes on both sides of the border.

Almost 200 persons have died in Lebanon as a result of Israeli strikes, 170 of them were Hezbollah fighters. Ten troops and five civilians have died in Israel as a result of attacks from Lebanon.

However, the strikes have mainly only affected districts close to the border, and both sides have expressed a desire to prevent a full-scale conflict.

Several Western envoys have traveled to Beirut in an attempt to find ways to defuse the conflict; however, they have largely spoken with Lebanese government representatives rather than Hezbollah, which the US has classified as a terrorist organization.

Following the Lebanese complaints, according to one of the Lebanese officials, a French technical delegation returned to Beirut two days after Sejourne’s visit to discuss specifics.

An additional Lebanese official stated that Beirut had not replied to the plan, stating that since it was neither dated or signed, it was not considered formal enough to require a response. Six

The idea refers to the UN Security Council resolution 1701 that put an end to the 2006 war as well as the truce that ended the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 1996.

It lays out three steps during a ten-day period.

Step one would involve both parties ceasing all military actions. Step two would require Lebanese armed groups to remove combat forces at least 10 km north of the border within three days, and Lebanon would start deploying military in the south. Israel would stop flying too close to Lebanese airspace.

The next phase would be for Lebanon and Israel to return to negotiations within ten days to delimit the land border “in a gradual way” with UNIFIL’s assistance.

Along with that, they would negotiate a plan of action to guarantee the creation of a zone devoid of armed non-state actors between the border and the Litani River.

In the past, Hezbollah has hinted that it would back the government in talks with Israel to resolve the status of disputed border territories in a way that benefits Lebanon.

Finance for the Lebanese army, which has been badly damaged by the country’s terrible financial crisis, is one of the concerns that has to be addressed.

The plan asks for an international initiative to provide “financing, equipment, and training” to assist in the deployment of the Lebanese army. “The socio-economic development of southern Lebanon” was another demand made.