From: CNN October 8, 2024 Extracts: Hezbollah supports efforts aimed at achieving a ceasefire in Lebanon, its top official said on Tuesday, marking the first time the group has publicly endorsed a truce and not conditioned it to stopping the war in Gaza.
A US state department spokesperson said Hezbollah’s call for a ceasefire earlier on Tuesday shows the group is on the back foot and “getting battered”
Hezbollah’s acting secretary general, Naim Qassem, said during a speech earlier today,
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that the group’s military capabilities were still functional despite two weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes, including Beirut bombings that killed the group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah and much of the militia’s top command
Qassem also said the group supported the efforts of Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, to secure a ceasefire, without providing further details on any conditions demanded by Hezbollah
US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller, at a briefing in Washington on Tuesday, said:
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For a year, you had the world calling for this ceasefire, you had Hezbollah refusing to agree to one and now that Hezbollah is on the back foot and is getting battered, suddenly they’ve changed their tune and want a ceasefire
Miller added: that the US continues to want a diplomatic solution to the conflict
according to the Washington Post’s John Hudson: Miller also said,
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"the Biden administration no longer supports an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon"
"Yes, we do support Israel launching these incursions to degrade Hezbollah's infrastructure"
