Hezbollah rejects US overtures, still open to diplomacy to avoid wider conflict

Iran-backed Hezbollah has rebuffed Washington’s initial ideas for cooling tit-for-tat fighting with neighbouring Israel, such as pulling its fighters further from the border, but remains open to US diplomacy to avoid a ruinous conflict, Lebanese officials said.

According US envoy Amos Hochstein has been leading a diplomatic outreach to restore security at the Israel-Lebanon frontier as the wider region teeters dangerously towards a major escalation of the conflict ignited by the Gaza conflict.

“Hezbollah is ready to listen,” a senior Lebanese official familiar with the group’s thinking said, while emphasising that the group saw the ideas presented by veteran negotiator Hochstein on a visit to Beirut last week as unrealistic.

Hezbollah’s position is that it will fire rockets at Israel until there is a full ceasefire in Gaza. Hezbollah’s rejection of the proposals presented by Hochstein has not been previously reported.

One of the Lebanese officials and a security source said, even after an Israeli strike reached Beirut on Jan 2, killing a Hamas leader.