US, allies call for 21-day  ceasefire across Israel-Lebanon border

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

The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, 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."

The US 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.

Restart stalled negotiations

The US 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 US 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.

The nations calling for a halt to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict are the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, 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 US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic conversations.

Blinken first raised the proposal with the French foreign minister on Monday and then broadened his outreach that evening at a dinner with the foreign ministers of all the Group of Seven industrialised 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 US officials said.

"War is not unavoidable"

The officials said the deal crystallised by late Wednesday afternoon during a conversation on the sidelines of the UN 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 his arrival.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the UN 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-US 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."

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."