Optimism on averting Israel-Hezbollah conflict despite fear of preventive strike
There is major optimism as to the possibility of reaching a solution that would spare Lebanon a major war, a Lebanese government source told Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper.
A highly informed Lebanese source meanwhile told the daily that, according to diplomatic messages received by Lebanon, “the issue is no longer about convincing Iran and Hezbollah not to retaliate, but rather about convincing (Israeli PM Benjamin) Netanyahu not to go to a preemptive strike in Lebanon and Iran.”
The source added that Netanyahu might be seeking to strike “a bank of targets that he considers vital for Hezbollah, as well as the Iranian nuclear program, specifically the Arak nuclear reactor.”
Informed Lebanese sources meanwhile told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the West is exerting diplomatic efforts to “end the latest wave of tensions and return the status quo to how it was prior to the two Israeli assassinations in Dahieh and Tehran.”
This is aimed at “granting international diplomacy a chance to end the war in Gaza and subsequently the war in south Lebanon and the Red Sea,” the sources said.
“It seems that the diplomatic contacts and military reinforcements have succeeded to a certain extent in containing the escalation, due to a U.S. desire not to decend into a war and an Iranian desire not to grant Netanyahu a chance to implicate Washington in a battle that it has been trying to avoid for the past 10 months prior to its presidential election,” Asharq al-Awsat added.
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