Although his visit to Lebanon came amid unprecedented high levels of war risk, U.S. envoy Amos Hookstein appeared confident in his meetings with Lebanese officials and the parliamentary opposition, heavily betting on the meetings in Doha today and tomorrow to achieve a breakthrough in Gaza that would inevitably extend to southern Lebanon. Hookstein did not come to Beirut delivering any warnings or surprising information, as revealed by a prominent source who was among the figures that met with President Joe Biden’s envoy to Lebanon and Israel; rather, he arrived with a positive tone, strongly advising efforts to avoid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, suggesting that the Gaza meetings would gain great importance and that Washington is heavily invested in ensuring a diplomatic solution in Gaza to prevent the widening of the war and does not want Lebanon to slip into any escalation that could threaten a wide-scale war.
While hearing the official position regarding commitment to UN Resolution 1701 as a key and fundamental pillar for calming tensions and launching negotiations concerning the land border, Hookstein emphasized the centrality of Resolution 1701. Notably, some domestic indicators coinciding with Hookstein's visit acquired significant implications regarding Lebanon's readiness to meet a settlement, with preliminary positive information regarding this highlighted by the Cabinet's initial approval yesterday for the military leadership to commence the first step of its plan to recruit six thousand additional soldiers to increase the army's numbers in the operational area designated by Resolution 1701, starting with the recruitment of 1,500 soldiers.
Information from "An-Nahar" indicates that Hookstein requested further de-escalation in Lebanon and the region, although he did not indirectly suggest that Hezbollah should refrain from responding to Israel. He believes that the American warships that have arrived in the Mediterranean came to prevent the outbreak of a major war and did not indicate that they would target Lebanese territory.
In a development reflecting the momentum of Western diplomacy to prevent war, "An-Nahar" correspondent Randa Taqieddine reported that French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné is arriving in Beirut this afternoon following the visit of U.S. envoy Amos Hookstein and prior to the British Foreign Secretary. Hookstein's visit to the Lebanese side emphasized the need to convince Hezbollah not to escalate the confrontation with Israel to spare Lebanon destruction and economic deterioration and confirmed that the Doha talks on the Gaza ceasefire would take a few days. Furthermore, the French minister decided to visit Lebanon after being on vacation, as Paris counted on him to carry out a visit to Lebanon and the region under these circumstances, leading him to cut his vacation short and head to Lebanon to convey the same messages and recommend calm and prevention of escalation in Lebanon.
