Lebanonâs Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNNâs 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 weekâs UN General Assembly.
âHe [Nasrallah] agreed, he agreed,â Habib told Christiane Amanpour in an interview aired on Wednesday.
âWe 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.]â
White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was then set to go to Lebanon to negotiate the ceasefire, Habib continued.
âThey 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,â 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, âto give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border.â
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 didnât 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 ânot something we have heard before. If true, [it] was never communicated to us.â
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller did not rule out that it had happened, but also said the U.S. was not aware.
âI canât speak to whether he ever agreed to it and told somebody inside Lebanon. Obviously, that could be something that happened that we wouldnât be aware of. I can tell you that, if thatâs true, it was never communicated to us in any way shape or form,â Miller told CNN at a press briefing Thursday.
âWe 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,â 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: âthe ceasefire will be for 21 daysâ across the Lebanon-Israel border.
But hours later, Prime Minister Benjajmin Netanyahu said Israel would âcontinue to hit Hezbollah with all our might.â Israeli officials tried to explain what happened as an âhonest misunderstanding,â saying they thought the proposal âwas the start of a process that could ultimately lead to a ceasefire.â
The U.S. official said that the administration retreated from pushing last weekâs ceasefire plan once they learned Israel may try to take out Nasrallah.
In response to a question on the United Statesâ diminishing influence in the region, Habib said Washington was âalways important in this regard.â
âI donât think we have an alternative. We need the United Statesâ help. Whether we get it or not, weâre not sure yet, but [the] United States is very important, vital for the ceasefire to happen,â said Habib.