By Michael D. Shear, Edward Wong and Farnaz Fassihi

WASHINGTON — The United States, its allies in Europe and several Arab nations on Wednesday (25) unveiled a joint ceasefire proposal to temporarily end the recent deadly fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, hoping to avert a wider war and bolster stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“It is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes,” President Joe Biden said in a joint statement Wednesday evening with President Emmanuel Macron of France. “The exchange of fire since Oct. 7, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”

Officials said there were indications that Israel and Lebanon were supportive of talks that might soon lead to a ceasefire, and Biden and Macron called for “immediate support” for the proposal by the two governments.

The proposal was endorsed by Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. In a statement, all of the signatories called for “an immediate 21-day cease-fire across the Lebanon-Israel border” to provide space for further negotiations.

Biden, arriving back in Washington from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, told reporters that “we were able to generate significant support from Europe, as well as the Arab nations”. He added: “It’s important the war does not widen. I’ll have more to say tomorrow.”

Two American officials said late Wednesday that they hoped a three-week ceasefire would allow time for a permanent end to the fighting between the two countries. They hinted that Israel and Lebanon had been supportive of the rapid-fire discussions over the previous 48 hours and might agree to the proposal soon.

One official said that diplomats have had conversations with both countries and were hopeful that representatives of their governments would accept the proposal for a cease-fire in “the coming hours”.

Hezbollah, a militant group that does not have the same accountability as a state institution in Lebanon, would not be formally asked to accept the proposal. But the officials, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said that if Lebanon agreed to a cease-fire, its government would be expected to ensure that Hezbollah fighters adhered to it during the 21-day period.

They said a temporary pause in the fighting could provide “diplomatic space” that could help revive stalled negotiations over the fighting in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. Biden offered a three-step proposal in May to bring an end to the nearly yearlong war in Gaza, but it has stalled amid objections from both Israel and Hamas.

The proposal from nearly a dozen countries came after intense discussions between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other diplomats on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, where leaders from around the globe are confronting the latest violence in the Middle East.

Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s minister for Europe and foreign affairs, told the UN Security Council during an emergency session on the crisis Wednesday evening that neither country had yet signed on to the proposal after a wave of fierce airstrikes by Israeli forces that have killed hundreds of people over the past week. But officials said they would try to persuade the two sides to agree to the proposal in the coming days.

Barrot said he was travelling to Beirut at the end of the week to work with Lebanese officials on supporting a ceasefire.

The immediate goal of the diplomatic effort is to reduce the chance that the deadliest week of fighting between Lebanon and Israel in years will draw the region into a wider conflict that kills many people and destabilizes the region.

But US officials also hope that stepping back from a war with Hezbollah would put pressure on Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader, to agree to a deal that would end nearly a year of fighting in Gaza and lead to the release of the remaining hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attacks.

The push for an end to the fighting comes at what US officials describe as a dangerous new moment in the yearlong spiral of violence, with the possibility of a second front along the border with Lebanon that could draw much bigger players. Hezbollah is supported by Iran, which considers the group its most important proxy in the region.

“An all-out war is possible, but I think there’s also the opportunity — we’re still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region,” President Joe Biden said during an appearance Wednesday on ABC’s ‘The View’.

The president is under intense pressure to avert that broader conflict and the clock is ticking. There are 117 days left before Biden leaves office. He and his aides have been searching — so far unsuccessfully — for a negotiated solution to the violence that would help Biden burnish his legacy on the world stage.

Blinken has been shuttling back and forth this week between European and Arab delegations in New York for the UN General Assembly to try to clinch the temporary cease-fire, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door diplomacy.

The efforts have focused on trying to get multiple nations across Europe and the Middle East to agree to the terms of a proposal that would then be presented to Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

On Monday (23), Blinken raised the issue at dinner with top diplomats from the Group of 7 nations. He told them that the United States was working on a proposal and wanted to keep efforts coordinated, the official said.

Then on Wednesday morning, at a session with top diplomats of Gulf Arab nations, Blinken pulled aside Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani of Qatar and got his country’s agreement to support the proposal. At the end of that session, Blinken did the same with Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia.

Along with Amos Hochstein, the White House official who conducts diplomacy with Lebanon, Blinken met with the prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, on Wednesday. By Wednesday evening, the Biden administration had gotten multiple European and Arab nations on board with the proposed terms and was ready to announce the proposal.

The new push represents the first time since Oct. 7 that the United States has sought to link the two conflicts involving Israel into a single diplomatic effort.

The logic, according to another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations, is that Hamas has sought to sow regional discord and chaos since the moment of the Oct. 7 attacks by triggering a wider war. As long as Israel is caught in an escalating series of conflicts, officials believe, the leadership of Hamas will not be motivated to reach a deal.

That official said the United States believed that Sinwar would have less leverage over the situation if the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah stopped and could feel more pressure to agree to a cease-fire deal in Gaza.

The official cautioned that it remained uncertain whether Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, or the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was prepared to agree to a halt in the fighting.

Some Israeli military officials have argued for months for a more aggressive response to Hezbollah’s attacks. On Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, hinted that a ground invasion in Lebanon was possible.

“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” Halevi told soldiers along Israel’s border with Lebanon. “This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”

Nasrallah pledged support for Hamas after the group killed about 1,200 people in a surprise attack last year in Israel. Hezbollah has repeatedly fired missiles and drones into northern Israel, forcing Israelis to flee their homes near the border.

One of the officials said it was unclear whether Hezbollah’s leader was willing to accept a cease-fire deal without seeing movement toward a similar deal in Gaza, which could complicate the effort.

The diplomacy is being conducted by the United States, with support from France. It comes a week after pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah fighters exploded across Lebanon, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands in an attack apparently orchestrated by Israel.

Israeli officials have not said Israel was responsible for the remote attacks, in which the communications devices were packed with explosives and remotely detonated. But a dozen current and former defence and intelligence officials who were briefed on the attacks said that Israel used shell companies to get into the supply chain and booby-trap the devices.

-New York Times