US urges rapid resolution to Israel-Hezbollah conflict amid escalating strikes in Lebanon

The United States said Monday it wants the Israel-Hezbollah war to end “as soon as possible”, and pressed for the enforcement of a UN resolution that required Iran-backed Hezbollah to withdraw from south Lebanon, News.Az reports citing foreign media.

The call from Israel’s top ally came as Israeli forces escalated their nearly month-long war in Lebanon, including targeting a finance group linked to Hezbollah, and continued pounding Gaza more than one year into the war there.

With the fighting raging, US envoy Amos Hochstein, visiting Lebanon’s capital, said Washington wants to see the conflict in Lebanon end “as soon as possible”.

“Tying Lebanon’s future to other conflicts in the region was not and is not in the interest of the Lebanese people,” Hochstein said, referring to a key Hezbollah demand that any ceasefire in Lebanon be linked to an end to the war in Gaza.

Hochstein also said that while UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, should be the basis for a new ceasefire, the parties had not done enough to implement it since then.

Under Resolution 1701, only the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeeping force Unifil should have been able to deploy in areas south of Lebanon’s Litani River near the Israeli border.

But Iran-backed Hezbollah remained in south Lebanon, and started launching low-intensity cross-border strikes into Israel last year in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to begin another tour of the Middle East in Israel on Tuesday, on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire as fears persist of even wider war.

Israel has vowed to respond to an Iranian missile attack on October 1 – itself retaliation for the killings of top militants – putting the region on tenterhooks.

Israeli police announced on Monday they had arrested a spy network of seven Israeli citizens allegedly gathering information on Israel’s military bases and energy infrastructure for Iranian intelligence.

Syria’s Government said two civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on an embassy district of the capital Damascus on Monday.

News.Az