Biden: It may be easier to get a ceasefire in Lebanon than in Gaza

2024-10-18 21:15:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

US President Joe Biden has suggested that negotiating a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah may be easier than the one between Israel and Hamas.

Hezbollah is a militant group and political party that controls most of southern Lebanon. Like the Palestinian group, Hamas, it is declared a terrorist organization by the US. Meanwhile, the European Union considers Hamas a terrorist organization, and blacklists only the political wing of Hezbollah, which has seats in the Lebanese Parliament.

Biden said that during the meeting with the leaders of Germany, France and Britain in Berlin, he discussed ways to end the conflict in the Middle East, after the day before Israel killed in Gaza the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar.

After meeting in Berlin with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Biden told reporters that the leaders "think there is an opportunity to work on a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, but such an agreement it will be more difficult for Gaza."

Sinwar was killed on October 17 by Israeli forces in Gaza, and Biden had a phone conversation today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The US leader did not say whether Netanyahu has assured him that the Israelis are ready to return to the negotiating table to try to reach a ceasefire agreement and deal to release the hostages.

"We are discussing this," Biden said.

Sinwar was credited as the architect of the October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

During the October 7 attack last year, Hamas killed nearly 1,200 people – mostly civilians – in southern Israel and kidnapped nearly 250 others. As a result of the Israeli offensive, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Since the war in Gaza began, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire on the border. But, recently, the fighting has escalated and Israel launched a ground offensive in the south of Lebanon at the beginning of October. Israel has said it aims to expel Hezbollah from the border so that thousands of Israelis displaced by the fighting can return to their homes./ REL