US, Allies Call for 21-Day Cease-Fire  09/26 06:10

   The U.S., France and other allies jointly called Wednesday for an immediate 
21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between 
Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent 
days.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S., France and other allies jointly called Wednesday 
for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating 
conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in 
Lebanon in recent days.

   The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the U.N. General 
Assembly in New York, says the recent fighting is "intolerable and presents an 
unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation."

   "We call for an immediate 21-day cease-fire across the Lebanon-Israel border 
to provide space for diplomacy," the statement said. "We call on all parties, 
including the governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary 
cease-fire immediately."

   There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli or Lebanese governments -- 
or Hezbollah -- but senior U.S. officials said all parties were aware of the 
call for a cease-fire. Earlier, representatives for Israel and Lebanon 
reiterated their support for a U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war between 
Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group.

   The U.S. hopes the new deal could lead to longer-term stability along the 
border between Israel and Lebanon. Months of Israeli and Hezbollah exchanges of 
fire have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes, and escalated 
attacks over the past week have rekindled fears of a broader war in the Middle 
East.

   The U.S. officials said Hezbollah would not be a signatory to the cease-fire 
but believed the Lebanese government would coordinate its acceptance with the 
group. They said they expected Israel to "welcome" the proposal and perhaps 
formally accept it when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the 
General Assembly on Friday.

   While the deal applies only to the Israel-Lebanon border, the U.S. officials 
said they were looking to use a three-week pause in fighting to restart stalled 
negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and 
Hamas, another Iranian-backed militant group, after nearly a year of war in 
Gaza.

   Netanyahu's Office said that the ceasefire put forward from the United 
States and France was only a proposal and the Prime Minister, who is currently 
on a flight en route to the United States for the United Nations General 
Assembly, has not responded to the proposal.

   The U.S., France and other allies jointly called Wednesday for an immediate 
21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between 
Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent 
days.

   Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is the acting prime minister 
during Netanyahu's trip abroad, said that there will be no ceasefire in the 
north, vowing to continue the fighting in the north "with full force until 
victory" and returning the tens of thousands of Israeli citizens evacuated from 
their homes in the north.

   The Prime Minister's Office added that the Israeli military was continuing 
to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and the war in Gaza.

   The allies calling for a halt to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict are the 
United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, the U.K., 
Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

   Work on the proposal came together quickly this week with President Joe 
Biden's national security team, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 
national security adviser Jake Sullivan, meeting with world leaders in New York 
and lobbying other countries to support the plan, according to U.S. officials 
who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic 
conversations.

   Blinken first raised the proposal with the French foreign minister Monday 
and then broadened his outreach that evening at a dinner with the foreign 
ministers of all the Group of Seven industrialized democracies.

   During a meeting Wednesday morning with Gulf Cooperation Council foreign 
ministers, Blinken approached Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al 
Thani and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan to ask their approval and 
got it. Blinken and senior White House adviser Amos Hochstein then met with 
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who signed off on the deal.

   Sullivan, Hochstein and senior adviser Brett McGurk were also in touch with 
Israeli officials about the proposal, one of the U.S. officials said. McGurk 
and Hochstein have been the White House's chief interlocutors with Israel and 
Lebanon since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas launched the war in Gaza.

   The officials said the deal crystallized by late Wednesday afternoon during 
a conversation on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly between Biden and 
French President Emmanuel Macron.

   Blinken expects to meet Netanyahu's top strategic adviser in New York on 
Thursday ahead of the prime minister's arrival.

   An Israeli official said Netanyahu has given the green light to pursue a 
possible deal, but only if it includes the return of Israeli civilians to their 
homes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were 
discussing behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

   French Foreign Minister Jean-Nol Barrot told the U.N. Security Council 
during a special meeting that "we are counting on both parties to accept it 
without delay" and added that "war is not unavoidable."

   At the meeting, Mikati, the Lebanese prime minister, publicly threw his 
support behind the French-U.S. plan that "enjoys international support and 
which would put an end to this dirty war."

   He called on the Security Council "to guarantee the withdrawal of Israel 
from all the occupied Lebanese territories and the violations that are repeated 
on a daily basis."

   Israel's U.N. Ambassador, Danny Danon, told journalists that Israel would 
like to see a cease-fire and the return of people to their homes near the 
border: "It will happen, either after a war or before a war. We hope it will be 
before."

   Addressing the Security Council later, he made no mention of a temporary 
cease-fire but said Israel "does not seek a full-scale war."

   Both Danon and Mikati reaffirmed their governments' commitment to a Security 
Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war. Never fully 
implemented, it called for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and 
Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to be replaced by 
Lebanese forces and U.N. peacekeepers, and the disarmament of all armed groups 
including Hezbollah.

   Earlier Wednesday, Biden warned in an appearance on ABC's "The View" that 
"an all-out war is possible" but said he thinks the opportunity also exists "to 
have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region."

   Biden suggested that getting Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a cease-fire 
could help achieve a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

   That war is approaching the one-year mark after Hamas attacked southern 
Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostages. Israel 
responded with an offensive that has since killed more than 41,000 
Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not provide a 
breakdown of civilians and fighters in their count.

   "It's possible and I'm using every bit of energy I have with my team ... to 
get this done," Biden said. "There's a desire to see change in the region."

   The U.S. government also raised the pressure with additional sanctions 
targeting more than a dozen ships and other entities it says were involved in 
illicit shipments of Iranian petroleum for the financial benefit of Iran's 
Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah.