Reports: Berri proposes Israel halt attacks for 15 days for disarmament to begin

Speaker Nabih Berri will propose to U.S. envoy Tom Barrack that Israel fully halt its attacks for 15 days after which Lebanon would begin removing what’s left of Hezbollah’s arms, TV networks said ahead of the two men’s meeting on Tuesday.

"The meeting between Berri and Barrack was very positive and we can say that it dispelled the pessimistic atmosphere that had recently prevailed," sources told LBCI television.

Other sources meanwhile told MTV that Barrack had told officials whom he met with that the Lebanese response was incomplete.

"The Lebanese response was unified and what Barrack heard in Baabda he heard again in Ain el-Tineh," the sources said.

Sources also told MTV that "Hezbollah is still insisting not to hand over its weapons and not to have a timetable."

Speaking to reporters after the Ain el-Tineh talks, Barrack said the meeting with Berri was “great.”

Asked by a reporter “why wouldn’t the U.S. give any guarantees to Lebanon,” Barrack said: “There is no problem with guarantees. We’re all working through it. Everything is moving. You should all be hopeful. We’re gonna get regional stability. Everything is gonna be okay.”

Barrack had met Monday and Tuesday with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and a host of political, religious and financial figures.

He had said Monday that he returned to Lebanon because U.S. President Donald Trump is interested in reaching “regional stability” and because Lebanon is the “center of that process.”

Noting that the U.S. wants “security” and “economic prosperity” in Lebanon, Barrack pointed out that the U.S. cannot “compel” Israel to do or not do “anything.”

The Presidency meanwhile said that Aoun handed Barrack, in the name of the Lebanese state, a "draft comprehensive memo for the implementation of everything that Lebanon has pledged -- from the November 27, 2024 declaration to the Lebanese government’s ministerial statement to especially the president’s inaugural speech.”

Barrack's visit to Lebanon comes amid ongoing domestic and international pressure for Hezbollah to give up its remaining arsenal after a bruising war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement in November.