Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is expected to visit Washington Monday to discuss the terms of a ceasefire between the IDF and Hezbollah, a source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post.
Army Radio reported earlier in the day that Dermer had secretly visited Russia last week to discuss their potential involvement as a party that could guarantee that the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah would not rearm along Israel’s northern border.
A diplomatic source told the Post it was logical to involve Russia because it has the power to constrain Hezbollah and that Moscow itself wanted to be involved in the deal.
Dermer’s spokesperson said he had “no comment” about the Russia visit, nor did the Russian Embassy.US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that he was optimistic a deal could soon be reached.
“When it comes to Lebanon, we have been actively engaged in discussions with the Israeli government. Those should remain behind closed doors, but we do believe that at some point, the Israeli government wants to do a deal that gets its citizens back home,” Sullivan said.He rejected speculation by pundits that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would refrain from making a deal during the last three months of Biden’s term so as to give credit for such an agreement to Trump.Sullivan said that ceasefire deals like the one the US is pushing for in Lebanon are above such partisan politics.“I don’t think it’s [Israel] doing that deal for American politics. I think it’s doing that deal to try to secure Israel, and I expect that in the coming weeks, we will see progress in that direction,” Sullivan said. Dermer has been a key player in efforts to secure a deal and in communications between Israel and Washington.His two trips take place alongside a visit last week by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to discuss ceasefire efforts, including the security guarantees Israel would need for such a cessation of hostilities to end the IDF-Hezbollah war that began on October 8.Israel, in the last month, has doubled down on its military campaign against Hezbollah, which had planned to launch an October 7-style invasion of the country’s northern border.
The IDF assassinated Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, and its soldiers entered southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah back to the Litani River.
Prohibiting Hezbollah
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which set the ceasefire terms that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006, prohibited non-state actors such as Hezbollah from operating in southern Lebanon from Israel’s border to the Litani River.It was never implemented, and the UN peacekeeping force monitoring the situation was not able to prevent Hezbollah from amassing arms and building tunnels with which to attack Israel. Any new ceasefire deal would be based on that initial resolution, with Israel wanting an effective implementation mechanism and IDF capacity to strike Hezbollah if necessary to ensure compliance.Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon had been successful, and the challenge now was to secure peace.He spoke at a ceremony marking the end of his brief tenure as Foreign Minister and the entry of Gideon Sa’ar into the role. “The blows we inflicted overwhelmed Hezbollah, of which the elimination of Nasrallah was the crowning achievement. Our task now is to realize the fruits of this victory by changing the security reality in the North,” Katz said.