The Biden administration’s day plan for a 21-day ceasefire to avert a Third Lebanon war was coordinated with Israel, the White House said as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to press on with the IDF’s military campaign to push Hezbollah back to the Litani River.
“The statement was coordinated with the Israeli side,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in Washington, adding that the US was holding diplomatic talks in New York on the sidelines of the high level opening sessions of the 79th UN General Assembly.
“Israel was aware of the statement and we are having continued discussions with our team in New York,” Jean-Pierre said.
“What we know and what we have seen is that this can not continue,” she said.
“We want to see a 21-day ceasefire to give us the space to have that conversation so that we can have negotiations to end this. That’s what we want to see. And so we believe this gives us an opportunity to do that,” she said.
“We felt comfortable releasing that statement last night because we have been having those conversations with Israel and Lebanon,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that diplomacy is the way to deal with what we have been seeing.
“We are trying to prevent a wider war,” she stressed.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib were all in New York on Thursday to attend the UNGA and related events.
A diplomatic source said that “Israel was informed about the American proposal, but clearly did not give its consent to it.”
Netanyahu, upon landing in the rain in New York Thursday morning, clarified immediately that the IDF will continue with its military campaign against Hezbollah.
“We are continuing to hit Hezbollah with all our power, and we will not stop until we achieve all our objectives, first and foremost the retune of the northern residents to their homes,” Netanyahu told reporters on the tarmac as he stood under an umbrella with his wife, Sara.
“Our policy is clear, ” Netanyahu said, so “nobody should misunderstand it.”
While he was en route to New York, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, together with ten other countries, called on all parties involved in the violence in northern Israel and southern Lebanon to accept a 21-day ceasefire.
The Prime Minister’s Office sent a message from the plane stressing that it had not yet accepted that offer and then issued a photograph of Netanyahu authorizing the assassination of Hezbollah’s drone unit chief Muhammad Hossein Sarur.
Netanyahu told reporters that “during the flight, I gave authorization for the assassination of the head of [Hezbollah’s] drone unit and other things, and he was assassinated.”
He explained that he had arrived to deliver an address before UNGA on Friday morning New York time.
“I am here for an important visit to the United Nations together with families of the [Gaza] hostages whom we we have not forgotten for a minute, in order to make Israel’s case to the world.”
The Prime Minister’s Office stressed earlier Thursday that the ceasefire call was “an American-French proposal that the Prime Minister has not even responded to,” the PMO stated.
It also rejected reports that as a result of the diplomatic initiatives the IDF had scaled down the level of its military campaign to push Hezbollah back to the Litani River, a step that is mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.
“The report about the purported directive to ease up on the fighting in the north is the opposite of the truth. The Prime Minister has directed the IDF to continue fighting with full force, according to the plan that was presented to him.
IDF poised to embark on ground invasion of southern Lebanon
The IDF remained poised on Thursday to embark on a ground invasion of southern Lebanon to route out Hezbollah forces along the border.
“The fighting in Gaza will also continue until all the objectives of the war have been achieved,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz wrote on X on Thursday morning that “there will not be a ceasefire in the North.”
The PMO spoke up hours after the United States and France called on Israel and Lebanon to accept a 21-day ceasefire to allow for a diplomatic resolution to the cross-border conflict that in recent weeks has threatened to spill over into an all-out war.
“We call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement,” the US and France said.
It was endorsed by ten other countries and entities: Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
They called on Israel, the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah, and Lebanon to adhere to a settlement based on the UNSC Resolution 1701 that set out the ceasefire terms for the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Such a step would necessitate Hezbollah pulling out of the area of southern Lebanon near the Israeli border and moving back to the Litani River. Hezbollah has long violated that resolution. Israel has been weighing the option of a ground campaign in southern Lebanon in addition to its current aerial one.
The US, France, and the additional ten countries also called for the implementation of the May 31` Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal that was endured by the UNSC under Resolution 2735.
“We call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement consistent with UNSCR 1701, and the implementation of UNSCR 2735 regarding a ceasefire in Gaza,” the 12 countries said.
“We are then prepared to fully support all diplomatic efforts to conclude an agreement between Lebanon and Israel within this period, building on efforts over the last months, that end this crisis altogether,” the 12 countries underscored.
A senior US official said that talks would be held during those 21 days for a diplomatic resolution, noting that it only involved the conflict with Hezbollah and did not include a Gaza ceasefire, even though steps were ongoing to finalize such a deal as well.
The official noted that it was expected that Israel and Lebanon would respond within hours to the call.
US. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday that there was a risk of all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel but added that a diplomatic solution was still viable.
“We now face the risk of an all-out war. Another full-scale war (could) be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon,” Austin said after a meeting with his British and Australian counterparts in London.
“So let me be clear, Israel and Lebanon can choose a different path, despite the sharp escalation in recent days, a diplomatic solution is still viable,” Austin said.
Asked about red lines for US support to Israel, Austin said the United States would not change its commitment to help Israel protect itself and its sovereign territory.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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