France has submitted a written proposal to Beirut aimed at ending hostilities with Israel and settling the disputed Lebanon-Israel border, according to a document seen by Reuters, and calls for militants, including Hezbollah, to withdraw 10 kilometers back from the border. .

The plan aims to end border clashes between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel. The hostilities are taking place alongside the Gaza war and are fueling concern that the conflict will widen.

The document, the first written proposal submitted to Beirut during weeks of Western mediation, was delivered to top Lebanese government officials, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati, by French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne last week, four senior Lebanese and three French officials said. officials.

It aims to prevent a conflict “at risk of spiraling out of control” and to impose “a possible cease-fire when the conditions are right” and eventually envisages negotiations to delineate the disputed land border between Lebanon and Israel.

Hezbollah formally rejects de-escalation negotiations until the war in Gaza ends, a position that a Hezbollah politician reiterated in response to the proposal.

While some details of similar mediation efforts by US Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein have been published in recent weeks, details of the French written proposal delivered to Lebanon have not been previously disclosed.

The three-step plan calls for a 10-day de-escalation process that will end with border negotiations.
A French diplomatic source said the proposal had been submitted to the governments of Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah.

France has historical ties with Lebanon. It has 20,000 civilians in the country and about 800 soldiers as part of a UN peacekeeping force.

“We have made proposals. We are in contact with the Americans and it is important to gather all the initiatives and build peace,” Sejour told a press conference on Monday.

The plan proposes that Lebanese armed groups and Israel halt military operations with each other, including Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

Lebanese armed groups would destroy all facilities, including those near the border, and withdraw combat forces – including Hezbollah’s elite Radwan fighters and equipment such as anti-tank systems – at least 10 kilometers north of the border, the proposal said.

The proposal puts Hezbollah fighters much closer to the border than the 30-kilometer (19-mile) withdrawal to Lebanon’s Litani River mandated by the UN resolution that ended the 2006 war with Israel.

The withdrawal would help ensure that rockets do not reach villages in northern Israel that have been targeted by anti-tank missiles, and is a satisfactory compromise for Hezbollah from a retreat in Litani.

Up to 15,000 Lebanese army troops will be deployed to the border region of southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah political stronghold where the group’s fighters.

Asked about the proposal, senior Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters the group would not discuss “any issue related to the situation in the south prior to the cessation of the attack on Gaza.”