US denies Israeli reports of imminent Blue Line deal with Lebanon

Reports over the last few days that a US-backed deal to calm tensions along the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel are false, according to US officials and sources.

Several press reports, citing Israeli officials, suggested that the US and European countries were on the verge of finalizing a deal that would halt cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group designated as a terror organization by Washington.

Axios reported that the US and Europe would announce economic support for Lebanon to “sweeten the deal for Hezbollah.”

US officials poured cold water on these reports “as largely fake news” but stressed that senior Biden administration officials were continuing to lead efforts to restore calm along the border.

“All diplomatic options are being explored,” a US official told Al Arabiya English, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Asked about the reports citing Israeli officials, one Arab diplomat said the main focus was on getting Lebanese and Israeli citizens back to their homes on both sides of the border.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, tens of thousands of residents fled their homes due to the ensuing clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah and Palestinian factions.

Amos Hochstein, a senior aide to President Joe Biden, was immediately dispatched to ensure this did not spiral into an all-out war. These efforts have been widely seen as one of the few successes of the Biden administration in preventing the Gaza conflict from spreading.

US strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have so far not stopped Iran-backed attacks on US troops as well as commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Hochstein has made multiple trips to the region and to Europe, where he has met with Lebanese and Israeli officials. He previously succeeded in brokering a deal that saw Israel and Lebanon, technically in a state of war, agree on demarcating their maritime borders with the hopes of benefiting from offshore natural gas reserves.

Israeli officials have said they were open to a possible agreement with Hezbollah if it included a safe zone along the border with Lebanon and other security guarantees. They have also warned that the window for a deal is closing, threatening to intensify its bombardment and attacks on Hezbollah targets if their fighters are not pushed back away from the border. For its part, Hezbollah has said it would stop attacking Israel once a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.

While Washington has been working to contain the conflict in Gaza and warned Israel against preemptive strikes on Lebanon, the US has also made clear to Lebanon and its officials that it cannot be a launchpad for attacks against Israel. US officials have repeatedly stressed that they do not want to see the conflict expand into Lebanon, saying it would be in no one’s interest.