BEIRUT, Nov 20: US envoy Amos Hochstein announced he would head to Israel on Wednesday after spending two days in Lebanon trying to hammer out a deal for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The United States and France have spearheaded efforts for a truce in the conflict, which escalated in late September after nearly a year of deadly exchanges of fire across Israel's northern border.
Israel expanded the focus of its operations from Gaza to Lebanon, vowing to secure the north and allow tens of thousands of people displaced by the cross-border fire to return home.
On Wednesday, Hochstein met for a second time with one of his main interlocutors, Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of the Iran-backed group.
"The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday and made additional progress, so I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can," Hochstein said in brief remarks to reporters in the Lebanese capital.
The day before, Hochstein had said an end to the war was "within our grasp", while Berri said the situation was "good, in principle" though some details remained to be ironed out.
A diplomat in Lebanon, requesting anonymity, told AFP on Wednesday that Hochstein and Lebanese officials had studied some modifications to the US truce plan. —AFP
