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Hezbollah leader agreed to temporary ceasefire days before assassination, says Lebanese foreign minister

Lebanon鈥檚 Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN鈥檚 Christiane Amanpour that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just days before he was assassinated by Israel. (CNN via CNN Newsource) Lebanon鈥檚 Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN鈥檚 Christiane Amanpour that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just days before he was assassinated by Israel. (CNN via CNN Newsource)
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Lebanon鈥檚 Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN鈥檚 Christiane Amanpour that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just days before he was assassinated by Israel.

The temporary ceasefire was called for by U.S. President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and other allies during last week鈥檚 UN General Assembly.

鈥淗e [Nasrallah] agreed, he agreed,鈥 Habib told Christiane Amanpour in an interview aired on Wednesday.

鈥淲e agreed completely. Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire but consulting with Hezbollah. The [Lebanese House] Speaker Mr. Nabih Berri consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French what happened. And they told us that Mr. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu also agreed on the statement that was issued by both presidents [Biden and Macron.]鈥

White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was then set to go to Lebanon to negotiate the ceasefire, Habib continued.

鈥淭hey told us that Mr. Netanyahu agreed on this and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that and you know what happened since then,鈥 the foreign minister added.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

A day earlier, a joint statement issued by the United States, France, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Qatar called for a 21-day ceasefire, 鈥渢o give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border.鈥

A Western source familiar with the negotiations also said Hezbollah had agreed to the temporary truce shortly before the U.S. released the proposal last week. The source didn鈥檛 say whether the decision had come directly from Nasrallah, but said that for the movement to agree, they would have needed his approval. A second source familiar with the talks agreed that the U.S. was aware that Hezbollah was agreeing to the ceasefire.

However, an official from the Biden administration told CNN that Nasrallah himself agreeing to the deal is 鈥渘ot something we have heard before. If true, [it] was never communicated to us.鈥

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller did not rule out that it had happened, but also said the U.S. was not aware.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 speak to whether he ever agreed to it and told somebody inside Lebanon. Obviously, that could be something that happened that we wouldn鈥檛 be aware of. I can tell you that, if that鈥檚 true, it was never communicated to us in any way shape or form,鈥 Miller told CNN at a press briefing Thursday.

鈥淲e were having a number of diplomatic engagements to talk about the proposals that we were going to put forward. I think all of the parties were well aware of the proposals that we were going to put forward, but at no time in those conversations did we get a message that Hezbollah had agreed or was going to agree to it,鈥 Miller said.

Hezbollah never officially announced their position publicly. It appeared Hezbollah was waiting to see what Israel would do once the U.S., France and the other allies put out the statement on Wednesday night announcing the ceasefire.

A U.S. official previously told CNN that the U.S.-led statement had also been greenlit by Israel after working on it together for several days. On a hastily-arranged call that night, senior Biden administration officials told reporters with confidence: 鈥渢he ceasefire will be for 21 days鈥 across the Lebanon-Israel border.

But hours later, Prime Minister Benjajmin Netanyahu said Israel would 鈥渃ontinue to hit Hezbollah with all our might.鈥 Israeli officials tried to explain what happened as an 鈥渉onest misunderstanding,鈥 saying they thought the proposal 鈥渨as the start of a process that could ultimately lead to a ceasefire.鈥

The U.S. official said that the administration retreated from pushing last week鈥檚 ceasefire plan once they learned Israel may try to take out Nasrallah.

In response to a question on the United States鈥 diminishing influence in the region, Habib said Washington was 鈥渁lways important in this regard.鈥

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we have an alternative. We need the United States鈥 help. Whether we get it or not, we鈥檙e not sure yet, but [the] United States is very important, vital for the ceasefire to happen,鈥 said Habib.

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