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US Envoy Says End to Israel-Hezbollah War ‘Within Our Grasp’
US special envoy Amos Hochstein speaks to the media after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
A senior US mediator said on Tuesday there was a “real opportunity” to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and that gaps were narrowing, signaling progress in Washington’s efforts to clinch a ceasefire.
White House envoy Amos Hochstein spoke in Beirut following talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a day after the Lebanese government and Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization agreed to a US ceasefire proposal, with some comments on the content.
“I came back because we have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end,” Hochstein told a press conference after the meeting. “It is now within our grasp. As the window is now, I hope the coming days yield a resolute decision.”
Hochstein’s mission marks a last-ditch attempt by the outgoing US administration to clinch a ceasefire in Lebanon as diplomacy to end the war in Gaza appears totally adrift.
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on Tuesday “there are talks regarding an arrangement with Lebanon” but reiterated that Israel would agree only if all its demands were met, including pushing Hezbollah away from the border.
The diplomatic efforts coincide with an intensification of the war, with Israel stepping up its strikes on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs and striking three times in the capital itself in the last three days.
The conflict spiraled into all-out war in September when Israel went on the offensive, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes, sending troops into the south, and killing many Hezbollah commanders including leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hochstein has tried to broker a ceasefire several times over the last year.
Hezbollah has endorsed its long-time ally Berri as Lebanon’s negotiator. Hochstein flew to Beirut overnight after Lebanon delivered its written response to a US ceasefire proposal which Berri received last week from the US ambassador.
Israel launched its offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah, which opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel led to the start of the Gaza war. Hezbollah, which wields significant influence in Lebanon, has been firing barrages of rockets, missiles, and drones at neighboring northern Israel almost daily since last October, forcing tens of thousands of Israels to flee their homes.
Israel‘s declared goal is to dismantle Hezbollah‘s capabilities and secure the return of the Israelis evacuated from the north.
An Israeli strike killed two people in the Chiyah district of Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Lebanese health ministry said.
At least 35 projectiles were fired into Israel from Lebanon on Tuesday, some of which were intercepted, according to Israeli military statements. The Israeli air force also intercepted two drones flown into Israel from Lebanon, the military said.
Cohen, speaking at a conference on Tuesday, said Israel would “make an arrangement only if all our demands are met.”
He said this meant pushing back Hezbollah, ensuring it cannot return and regain strength, Israelis being able to return safely to the north, and Israeli forces having “full freedom of action, not just in the event of an attack, but in the event they [Hezbollah] try to restore their strength.”
Lebanon has rejected Israel being granted freedom of action. Berri said last week the US proposal did not mention this.
Israel‘s campaign in Lebanon has uprooted more than 1 million people in the last eight weeks.
UN RESOLUTION
World powers say a ceasefire must be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Its terms require Hezbollah to move weapons and fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 km (20 miles) north of the Israeli border.
Ali Hassan Khalil, a top Berri aide, told Reuters on Monday that Lebanon had presented its comments on the US proposal “in a positive atmosphere.”
“All the comments that we presented affirm the precise adherence to Resolution 1701 with all its provisions,” he said, declining to give details.
Israel‘s campaign has killed 3,481 people in Lebanon since hostilities began, most since late September, Lebanese authorities say. The figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Hezbollah strikes have killed 43 civilians in northern Israel and the Golan Heights, while 73 soldiers have been killed in strikes in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli figures.
The post US Envoy Says End to Israel-Hezbollah War ‘Within Our Grasp’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations into Abraham Accords, Sources Say
US President Donald Trump points a finger as he delivers remarks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 31, 2025. Photo: Kent Nishimura via Reuters Connect
President Donald Trump’s administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.
As part of the Abraham Accords, inked in 2020 and 2021 during Trump’s first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
Azerbaijan and every country in Central Asia, by contrast, already have longstanding relations with Israel, meaning that an expansion of the accords to include them would largely be symbolic, focusing on strengthening ties in areas like trade and military cooperation, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Such an expansion would reflect Trump’s openness to pacts that are less ambitious than his administration’s goal to convince regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to restore ties with Israel while war rages in Gaza.
The kingdom has repeatedly said it would not recognize Israel without steps towards Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s conflict with its neighbor Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources said.
While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centered on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources said. Two of the sources argued a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.
Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Aryeh Lightstone, a key Witkoff aide, met Aliyev later in the spring in part to discuss the Abraham Accords, three of the sources said.
As part of the discussions, Azerbaijani officials have contacted officials in Central Asian nations, including in nearby Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader Abraham Accords expansion, those sources said. It was not clear which other countries in Central Asia – which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – were contacted.
The State Department, asked for comment, did not discuss specific countries, but said expanding the accords has been one of the key objectives of Trump. “We are working to get more countries to join,” said a US official.
The Azerbaijani government declined to comment.
The White House, the Israeli foreign ministry and the Kazakhstani embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Any new accords would not modify the previous Abraham Accords deals signed by Israel.
OBSTACLES REMAIN
The original Abraham Accords – inked between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – were centered on restoration of ties. The second round of expansion appears to be morphing into a broader mechanism designed to expand US and Israeli soft power.
Wedged between Russia to the north and Iran to the south, Azerbaijan occupies a critical link in trade flows between Central Asia and the West. The Caucasus and Central Asia are also rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, prompting various major powers to compete for influence in the region.
Expanding the accords to nations that already have diplomatic relations with Israel may also be a means of delivering symbolic wins to a president who is known to talk up even relatively small victories.
Two sources described the discussions involving Central Asia as embryonic – but the discussions with Azerbaijan as relatively advanced.
But challenges remain and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached, particularly with slow progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The two countries, which both won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population – broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
In 2023, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh, prompting about 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. Both sides have since said they want to sign a treaty on a formal end to the conflict.
Primarily Christian Armenia and the US have close ties, and the Trump administration is wary of taking action that could upset authorities in Yerevan.
Still, US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself, have argued that a peace deal between those two nations is near.
“Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there,” Trump told reporters earlier in July. “And it’s pretty close.”
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Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara
A Polisario fighter sits on a rock at a forward base, on the outskirts of Tifariti, Western Sahara, Sept. 9, 2016. Photo: Reuters / Zohra Bensemra / File.
US President Donald Trump has reaffirmed support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, saying a Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory was the sole solution to the disputed region, state news agency MAP said on Saturday.
The long-frozen conflict pits Morocco, which considers the territory as its own, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state there.
Trump at the end of his first term in office recognized the Moroccan claims to Western Sahara, which has phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds, as part of a deal under which Morocco agreed to normalize its relations with Israel.
His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made clear in April that support for Morocco on the issue remained US policy, but these were Trump’s first quoted remarks on the dispute during his second term.
“I also reiterate that the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and supports Morocco’s serious, credible and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute,” MAP quoted Trump as saying in a message to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
“Together we are advancing shared priorities for peace and security in the region, including by building on the Abraham Accords, combating terrorism and expanding commercial cooperation,” Trump said.
As part of the Abraham Accords signed during Trump’s first term, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
In June this year, Britain became the third permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to back an autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty for the territory after the U.S. and France.
Algeria, which has recognized the self-declared Sahrawi Republic, has refused to take part in roundtables convened by the U.N. envoy to Western Sahara and insists on holding a referendum with independence as an option.
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Israel Says Its Missions in UAE Remain Open Despite Reported Security Threats
President Isaac Herzog meets on Dec. 5, 2022, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Photo: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that its missions to the United Arab Emirates are open on Friday and representatives continue to operate at the embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai in cooperation with local authorities.
This includes, the statement underlined, ensuring the protection of Israeli diplomats.
On Thursday, reports appeared in Israeli media that Israel was evacuating most of its diplomatic staff in the UAE after the National Security Council heightened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country for fear of an Iranian or Iran-sponsored attacks.
“We are emphasizing this travel warning given our understanding that terrorist organizations (the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad) are increasing their efforts to harm Israel,” the NSC said in a statement.
After signing the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, the UAE has been among the closest regional allies of the Jewish state.
Israel is concerned about its citizens and diplomats being targeted in retaliatory attacks following its 12-day war against Iran last month.
Earlier this year, the UAE sentenced three citizens of Uzbekistan to death for last year’s murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Cohen.