Report: US, France to seek 1996-like agreement between Lebanon, Israel

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is supposed to visit Lebanon in the coming period, carrying “some answers,” after he recently visited Paris and discussed the files of south Lebanon and a possible political settlement.

“In Paris, the French presented a proposal to Hochstein calling for the formation a four-party committee comprising the U.S., France, Israel and Lebanon, which would engage in negotiations aimed at ending the current disputes,” Kuwait’s al-Jarida newspaper reported.

“The French diplomacy has borrowed this idea from the April 1996 Understanding that ended the Grapes of Wrath War between Israel and Hezbollah. At the time, the committee comprised Syria and the four aforementioned countries, but in the new suggestion Damascus will be replaced by an Arab country,” the daily said.

Hochstein for his part asked the French to “prepare a plan or a written paper containing the details of the proposal in order to discuss them, and this is what the French are currently working on,” al-Jarida added.

One of the proposed ideas is for the international committee to open an office in Lebanon’s Tyre and another in Israel’s Nahariya to oversee the implementation of any ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and the Israeli army. The committee would also oversee negotiations between Lebanon and Israel over the delineation of the land border, the newspaper said.

Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed a daily exchange of fire between Israel's army and Hezbollah. At least 206 people have been killed in south Lebanon, 151 of them belonging to Hezbollah. According to Israeli authorities, 15 Israelis have been killed in the northern border area, including nine soldiers and six civilians.

The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border and Israel has warned that it is ready to use military force to return its settlers to their homes.