US begins meetings in Beirut to contain escalation with Israel

US begins meetings in Beirut to contain escalation with Israel

On Wednesday, in Beirut (Lebanon), the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, began a series of meetings with the Lebanese authorities to try to contain the escalation between the Shiite Hezbollah group and Israel, in the face of fears of an open war.

Hochstein met at the residence of Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is also the leader of the Shiite Amal Movement, a main ally of Hezbollah, to be part of the first formal meeting of the day.

Fears of open conflict in Lebanon flared up again two weeks ago, after attacks attributed to Israel killed Hezbollah’s top commander, Fouad Shukr, in Beirut, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in Tehran.

The Israeli army killed three Palestinians on Wednesday during a military operation using an explosive-laden drone in the city of Tubas in the northern occupied West Bank, where clashes erupted with local gunmen.

Rebuilding the Palestinian State

Italy announced today that it will present a project for the humanitarian, economic and political reconstruction of Palestine. As acting president of the G7, Italy “is ready to send a team to work on the transitional phase that should be managed by the United Nations and directed by the Arab countries towards the birth of a Palestinian state, uniting the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

Regarding the recognition of the Palestinian state, Tajani explained that Italy supports this, but “a concrete perspective must be presented to the Palestinian people.”

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