JERUSALEM: Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant advised US Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday (Sep 16) that the window was closing for a diplomatic answer to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah motion in southern Lebanon.
Gallant’s remarks got here because the White Home Particular envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to debate the disaster on the northern border the place Israeli troops have been exchanging missile hearth with Hezbollah forces for months.
“The chance for an agreed framework within the northern enviornment is operating out,” Gallant advised Austin in a telephone name, in accordance with a press release from his workplace.
So long as Hezbollah continued to tie itself to the Palestinian motion Hamas in Gaza, the place Israeli forces have been engaged for nearly a 12 months, “the trajectory is obvious,” he stated.
The go to by Hochstein, who is because of meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes amid efforts to discover a diplomatic path out of the disaster, which has pressured tens of 1000’s on each side of the border to go away their properties.
On Monday, Israeli media reported that the pinnacle of the military’s northern command had really useful a speedy border operation to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
Whereas the warfare in Gaza has been Israel’s principal focus because the assault by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct 7 final 12 months, the precarious scenario within the north has fuelled fears of a regional battle that would drag in america and Iran.
