France pans Israeli demand to strike Hezbollah if needed after ceasefire

France dismissed on Wednesday Israel’s demand that it retain the ability to continue to strike at Hezbollah in Lebanon if needed, even after a ceasefire was in place.

“Today we hear in Israel voices calling for it to keep a capacity to strike at any moment or even enter Lebanon, as is the case with its neighbor Syria,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told his parliament after holding talks with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Israel Katz last week.

“That is not compatible with the sovereignty of a strong country,” Barrot said, referring to broader efforts to help strengthen Lebanon’s governance.

He spoke after Katz insisted again on Wednesday that in any ceasefire Israel must have the “right to independently enforce and act against any terrorist activity and organization.”

Several diplomats have said it would be all but impossible to get Hezbollah or Lebanon to accept any proposal that included this demand.

France, which has historical ties with Lebanon, has sought to play a role in trying to secure a ceasefire in the Middle Eastern country. It has worked with the United States to try to implement a temporary ceasefire, but those talks stalled at the end of September.

France, US struggle to coordinate ceasefire efforts

Coordination between Paris and the outgoing US administration to get a ceasefire has been more complicated, since US envoy Amos Hochstein focused on his own proposals.

Barrot said it made no sense for France to lead initiatives by itself on Lebanon, given thay it needed the United States to convince Israel – just like it was not helpful for Washington to go it alone because it would “lack a fine appreciation of Lebanon’s internal political dynamics,” he said.

Katz publicly reiterated Israel’s terms for a ceasefire on  Wednesday, amid reports that such an agreement was near.*We will not agree to any ceasefires, we will not ease up, and we will not allow any arrangement that does not include achieving the war’s objectives,” Katz said at a visit to the Northern Command.

This includes “disarming Hezbollah, pushing them beyond the Litani River, and creating conditions for the safe return of northern residents to their homes,” Katz said, laying out Israel’s conditions for such a deal.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a political ally of Hezbollah and endorsed by it to negotiate, was quoted as saying that Lebanon was awaiting concrete ceasefire proposals and had not been informed officially of any new ideas.

“What is on the table is only [United Nations Security Council] Resolution 1701 and its provisions, which must be implemented and adhered to by both sides, not by the Lebanese side alone,” Berri, who helped negotiate the 2006 truce, told the Saudi Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

The US has stepped up its diplomatic activity in the last weeks and is hoping to put a deal in place before US President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20.

Biden’s status as a lame-duck leader could hamper his ability to strike an agreement on Israel’s behalf, but Lebanon is one of the areas where both the outgoing and incoming administrations could have the same policy goals for such a deal.

There is broad agreement that any deal would be based on UNSC Resolution 1701, which set the ceasefire terms which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006. That resolution mandated the removal of Hezbollah from the area between Israel and the Litani River, but was never enforced even though United Nations peacekeepers monitored that region.

The United States is now seeking an enforcement mechanism that would ensure that the only armed body in that area would be the Lebanese Army.

Dermer met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday to discuss terms for a deal.