WASHINGTON — President Biden spoke from the Rose Garden on Tuesday about the cease-fire plan between Israel and Hezbollah — claiming credit for helping broker the agreement after months of fighting.
“I just spoke to the prime ministers of Israel and Lebanon. I am pleased to announce that their governments have accepted the United States’ offer to end the devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah,” Biden, 82, said.
Biden said it was “designed to lead to a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
“Whatever is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to continue,” Biden said of the Lebanon-based Iran-backed terrorist group.
He added, “Over the next 60 days, the Lebanese army and state security forces will deploy and take control of their territory.” “Once again, Hezbollah will not be allowed to rebuild terrorist infrastructure and southern Lebanon and over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces and civilians.”
The outgoing president said that “Citizens on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities and begin rebuilding their homes, their schools, their farms, their businesses and their lives.”
The deal was approved after significant involvement of the French government, as Biden failed to broker a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.
“Just as the Lebanese people deserve a future of security and prosperity, so too do the people of Gaza,” Biden said in the Rose Garden. “Now Hamas has a choice to make. Their only way out is to release the hostages, including American citizens, they are holding and in the process end the fighting, which would allow increased humanitarian relief.
Israeli forces have killed leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah over the past two months – longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an airstrike in Beirut on September 27, just 10 days after a covert Israeli operation destroyed the group’s Hundreds of workers were injured. The pagers they used to communicate.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.
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