In a shocking turn of events, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just days before he was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike, according to Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. The revelation, made during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, has added a new layer of complexity to the ongoing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Speaking to Amanpour, Bou Habib disclosed that Nasrallah had given his approval for the temporary truce, which was brokered by major global powers. The ceasefire, he said, had the support of the United States, France, and other international allies.
According to Bou Habib, Nasrallah’s agreement came after discussions involving key figures in Lebanon, including the Speaker of the Lebanese House, Nabih Berri, who consulted with Hezbollah on the ceasefire proposal.
“We agreed completely. Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire after consulting with Hezbollah,” Bou Habib said during the interview. He explained that Lebanese officials had informed both American and French representatives that Hezbollah was on board with the ceasefire plan.
“We told the Americans and the French what happened, and they told us that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also agreed on the statement issued by Presidents Biden and Macron,” Bou Habib revealed.
However, despite Nasrallah’s agreement to the truce, the situation took a tragic turn when he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut just days later. This incident has not only raised questions about the ceasefire negotiations but also left many wondering if his death could have been avoided.
The ceasefire plan, which Nasrallah reportedly agreed to, was initiated by Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron. The objective was to create a 21-day pause in hostilities along the Lebanon-Israel border to give diplomacy a chance to ease tensions.
A joint statement issued by the United States, France, and several other international powers, including Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom, called for the ceasefire to prevent further escalation.
The statement read, “We call for a 21-day ceasefire to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border.”
According to sources familiar with the negotiations, Hezbollah had agreed to the truce before the US released the ceasefire proposal. However, the source did not confirm whether the decision came directly from Nasrallah but said his approval would have been necessary for such an agreement.
The ceasefire proposal was reportedly accepted by both Hezbollah and Israel, but things took a deadly turn on Friday when Nasrallah was killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike. His death came as a significant blow, not just to Hezbollah but to the ongoing efforts to broker peace in the region.
In response to the assassination, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “Israel will continue to hit Hezbollah with all our might.” The escalation of violence after the initial talks of peace has left the international community questioning what went wrong.
Israeli officials later explained that there had been a “misunderstanding” regarding the ceasefire agreement. They claimed they thought the proposal was the start of a process that could eventually lead to a ceasefire, rather than an immediate halt to hostilities. Despite this, the Biden administration, which had been working on the ceasefire with Israel, withdrew its efforts
