An effort led by France and Britain to secure a joint statement by the UN security council calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon has stalled in the face of US objections.
Washington is eager to avoid any suggestion there is any equivalence of blame for the eruption of the crisis that has led to the loss of life of hundreds of people in Lebanon.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has been firm in asserting Israel has a legitimate problem to solve, blaming Hezbollah’s continued rocket fire into Israel ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.
At one point there had been suggestions the UN security council, due to start late Wednesday, would be deferred overnight to secure agreement on a joint statement, but diplomats said such hopes were fast fading.
The differences emerged at a G7 dinner on Tuesday night. Both Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, went public in calls for a ceasefire to end the fighting. France and UK had also called for a ceasefire in meetings with allies in Paris a week ago.
European sources said the US had been working on a different, more complex, formula, and was sensitive to Israeli pressure or wording that would be seen to block its military offensive to degrade Hezbollah.
In a round of morning TV interviews Blinken was careful not to call for a ceasefire in Lebanon, referring instead to a diplomatic agreement.
He told ABC News that Hezbollah had started firing rockets into Israel after the deadly attacks of 7 October, saying: “People who lived in northern Israel had to flee their homes – homes were destroyed; villages were destroyed – about 70,000 Israelis. Israel started responding. You have Lebanese in southern Lebanon who’ve also had to flee their homes. We want to see people get back to their homes. The best way to do that is through a diplomatic agreement – [one that] pulls the forces back, creates space and security so that people can get back to their homes, kids can get back to school.”
Joe Biden also told ABC television that all-out war was possible, but added: “We’re still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region.”
In his address to the general assembly, Macron was more forthright, saying:
“There cannot be, must not be war in Lebanon.”
At a meeting with the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Blinken only referred to seeking a ceasefire in Gaza – the precondition Hezbolllah set for ending its relatively low-level but hugely disruptive assault on Israel.
Blinken also repeated his claim that it was Hamas and not Israel that was holding up a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Saying that 15 of the 18 paragraphs in the ceasefire agreement were signed off, he said: “The problem we have right now is that Hamas hasn’t been engaging on it for the last couple of weeks, and its leader has been talking about an endless war of attrition. Now, if he really cares about the Palestinian people, he’d bring this agreement over the finish line.
“Hard decisions remain to be made by Israel. But the problem right now in terms of bringing this across the finish line is Hamas, its refusal to engage in a meaningful way,” he added.
In contrast, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Iraq said in a joint statement: “Israel is pushing the region towards total war.”
The Lebanese foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said the US approach was “not promising”, adding: “It will not solve the Lebanese problem. The US is the only country that can really make a difference in the Middle East with regard to Lebanon.”
