WASHINGTON — President Biden spoke from the Rose Garden Tuesday to tout a cease-fire plan between Israel and Hezbollah — claiming credit for helping broker the agreement after months of fighting.
“I just spoke with the prime ministers of Israel and Lebanon. I’m pleased to announce that their governments have accepted the United States proposal to end the devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah,” Biden, 82, said.
Biden said that “this is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
“What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed,” Biden said of the Iran-backed terrorist group based in Lebanon.
“Over the next 60 days, the Lebanese army and state security forces will deploy and take control of their own territory,” he went on. “Once again, Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure and southern Lebanon will not be allowed to be rebuilt and over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces and civilians.”
The outgoing president added that “civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities and begin to rebuild their homes, their schools, their farms, their businesses and their very lives.”
The deal, approved after significant involvement by France’s government, comes as Biden has failed to broker a cease-fire deal between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.
“Just as the Lebanese people deserve a future of security and prosperity, so do the people of Gaza,” Biden added in the Rose Garden. “Now Hamas has a choice to make. Their only way out is to release hostages, including American citizens, which they hold and in the process bring an end to the fighting, which would make possible a surge of humanitarian relief.”
The Israeli military in the past two month killed the leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah — with longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah killed in a Sept. 27 airstrike in Beirut just 10 days after a covert Israeli operation killed and wounded hundreds of the group’s operatives by detonating the pagers they used to communicate.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.
