Berri Says Israel Rejected US Plan, Talks Collapse; Ceasefire Panel Now Only Channel
Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Monday that proposed negotiations with Israel have fallen apart after Jerusalem rejected a US initiative, ending a short-lived push to restart diplomacy. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat from Beirut, Berri said the breakdown came after US envoy Thomas Barrack floated a package that called for a two-month halt to Israeli operations, a pullback from Lebanese territory, and subsequent talks on land and maritime borders. “Israel officially rejected the US initiative,” Berri said, adding that Lebanon’s only remaining contact is a “mechanism” involving the countries that oversee the ceasefire.
That channel—created to police the truce that ended last year’s 13-month flare-up—now meets every two weeks in a more structured format, Berri noted. He said Lebanon remains committed to the November 2024 ceasefire, describing his outlook as “mixed” between pessimism and optimism.
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Barrack, in messages to Beirut on Monday, warned that hesitation over Hezbollah’s disarmament could trigger Israeli action without coordination, according to people briefed on the exchanges.
Border tensions spiked in October 2023, when exchanges between Israeli forces and Hezbollah escalated into airstrikes and heavy artillery fire. The fighting killed combatants and civilians on both sides, devastated parts of southern Lebanon, and displaced communities along the frontier. A US- and internationally backed truce in November 2024 froze positions. It set up a joint monitoring committee, but scattered breaches and reconnaissance incidents have persisted, complicating efforts to move toward border demarcation and security arrangements.
With formal talks off the table for now, diplomats say the ceasefire forum is the only practical venue to manage incidents and reduce the risk of a wider fight that could draw in regional actors already on edge.
