\n<\/p>\n
U.S. Envoy Discusses Ceasefire Agreement with Lebanon<\/strong><\/p>\n On Monday, Tom Barrack, the U.S. special envoy to Lebanon, announced that his team would talk about a potential ceasefire with Israel. This comes after the Lebanese government backed a U.S.-supported plan for the disarmament of Hezbollah, a group classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. since 1997.<\/p>\n Barrack made these remarks following a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. He mentioned the U.S. is also looking to propose an economic plan for Lebanon’s rebuilding after the recent conflicts. He is expected to meet with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri, who often acts as a negotiator for Hezbollah with the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the Lebanese government has taken an important step forward. Now, it\u2019s time for Israel to show its commitment,\u201d Barrack stated. <\/p>\n Hezbollah has been under increased pressure from the U.S., especially during former President Donald Trump\u2019s term, when the U.S. imposed extensive sanctions on the group and classified it as a Transnational Criminal Organization in 2018. The Biden administration has continued to apply these existing measures.<\/p>\n Following Lebanon\u2019s recent support for the disarmament plan, Hezbollah and its allies expressed anger, arguing that Israel should withdraw from occupied territories in southern Lebanon and stop its airstrikes. Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem warned against disarmament efforts, hinting at risks of civil unrest.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Salam reacted to Kassem’s comments, calling them a \u201cveiled threat\u201d and stating that no one in Lebanon desires a repeat of the civil war.<\/p>\n The situation escalated after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, leading to retaliatory strikes by both Hezbollah and Israel. While a ceasefire agreement was reached in November 2024, the region remains tense.<\/p>\n Barrack cautioned Hezbollah that they would be missing a significant opportunity if they choose not to disarm. Both President Aoun and Prime Minister Salam have stated their desire to disarm non-state groups like Hezbollah and called for Israeli military withdrawal.<\/p>\n Aoun is looking for ways to boost funding for Lebanon\u2019s military forces, as well as to attract international support for the country’s recovery. The World Bank estimates that the aftermath of the conflict in late 2024 will cost Lebanon about $11.1 billion in damages, adding to the country\u2019s ongoing economic crisis since 2019.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. Envoy Discusses Ceasefire Agreement with Lebanon On Monday, Tom Barrack, the U.S. special envoy to Lebanon, announced that his team would talk about a potential ceasefire with Israel. This comes after the Lebanese government backed a U.S.-supported plan for the disarmament of Hezbollah, a group classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. since<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[18584,1072,7784,5433,9376],"class_list":["post-16302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world-news","tag-conflicts","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}