So far, negotiations have failed to advance cease-fires on both fronts.
A smoke plume erupts after an Israeli airstrike targeted the outskirts of the village of Ibl al-Saqi in southern Lebanon, Sept. 30, 2024.Although President Joe Biden bluntly declared that "we need a cease-fire now" in Lebanon, his administration appeared to subdue its messaging on a push for a temporary truce between Israel and, as U.S. officials on Monday acknowledged Israel intends to scale up operations in Lebanon.
It also coincides with the State Department's public admission that it has again hit a wall in its efforts to push forward a cease-fire in Gaza because Hamas has refused to engage with Egyptian and Qatari mediators for weeks, leaving the Biden administration unable to pull together what senior U.S. officials advertised as a "final" proposal for a deal.
"The Biden team is definitely frustrated, but in many ways, it's a frustration born largely out of its own wishful thinking and unwillingness to face some harsh realities in today's Middle East," Brian Katulis, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Middle East Institute, told ABC News. Israel sees few benefits to curbing its military campaign in Lebanon, as it has already successfully eliminated several of its top targets and made progress toward restoring security on its northern border.
And while many have been wary about provoking Iran, some Biden administration officials and experts now see Tehran as increasingly unlikely to fully enter the fray. Search and rescue team members, together with locals, work to find bodies under the rubble of buildings destroyed in an Israeli airstrike the previous day in Ain el-Delb neighborhood, east of the port city of Sidon, southern Lebanon, Sept. 30, 2024.But even if the conflict in the Middle East doesn't expand further, White House officials had hoped a negotiated truce between Israel and Hezbollah could resuscitate Gaza peace talks.
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