Israel and Lebanon have reportedly agreed to the terms of a deal to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a cease-fire in the war on Hezbollah "in principle" during a security consultation with Israeli officials Sunday night, a source told CNN.
The Israeli Cabinet will convene Tuesday to approve the cease-fire deal, a senior Israeli official told Reuters on Monday.
The discussions the U.S. government had on the Lebanon-Israel cease-fire were positive and are headed in the right direction towards a deal, the White House said Monday.
"We're close," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.
"The discussions," he added, "were constructive, and we believe that the trajectory of this is going in a very positive direction. But, yeah, nothing is done until everything is done."
Another Israeli official told Reuters the Cabinet would convene to discuss a deal that could be cemented in the coming days.
Lebanon's deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab told Reuters on Monday there were "no serious obstacles" left to beginning the implementation of a U.S.-proposed 60-day truce to end fighting between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire, which could create an obstacle.
United States envoy Amos Hochstein said last week a cease-fire was "within our grasp."
The U.S. has pushed for a truce deal to end more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, which began in parallel with the Gaza war but drastically intensified over the last two months.
Saab said the proposal included a 60-day timeline for Israeli forces to withdraw from Lebanese territory, giving time for the Lebanese army to deploy to southern Lebanon.
He said one sticking point on who would monitor the cease-fire had been resolved in the last 24 hours by agreeing to set up a five-country committee, including France and chaired by the United States.
A Lebanese official and Western diplomat told Reuters the U.S. had informed Lebanese officials a cease-fire could be announced "within hours."
The Western diplomat said another main sticking point had been the sequencing of Israel's withdrawal, the Lebanese army's deployment and the return of displaced Lebanese to their homes in southern Lebanon.
Information from Reuters was used to compile this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.