BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon’s deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab told Reuters on Monday that 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.
“There appear to be no serious obstacles in the way of starting to implement the U.S. proposed ceasefire agreement,” Bou Saab told Reuters.
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.
Bou 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 ceasefire 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 that the U.S. had informed Lebanese officials a ceasefire 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.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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