With a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire on the horizon, an 18-year-old United Nations resolution has resurfaced as a blueprint for ending the war. The Israeli security cabinet has approved a ceasefire deal, believed to be a 60-day cessation of hostilities to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which aims to form the basis of a lasting truce.
Resolution 1701 was adopted in 2006 to end the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon, and had kept relative calm in the area for nearly two decades before the 2023 conflict. The resolution stipulates that Israel must withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon, and that the only armed groups present in the area should be the Lebanese military and UN peacekeeping forces.
The United States, which is mediating between Israel and Lebanon, believes a return to the principles of the resolution is in the interest of both parties, but has insisted on a mechanism to enforce it more strictly. Israel has argued that Hezbollah has breached the resolution multiple times by operating close to its border, while Lebanon says Israel regularly breached the agreement over the past two decades by sending fighter jets into its airspace.
The US has relayed a proposal to Lebanon that lies within the parameters of UN Resolution 1701 and aims to achieve a 60-day cessation of hostilities. The proposal focuses on stricter mechanisms to implement Resolution 1701 in the south of the country and on the role of the Lebanese army in doing so. It also requires Israeli ground forces operating in southern Lebanon to withdraw.
However, some Israeli officials have said that simply returning to 1701 is not enough, insisting that Israel must retain the right to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after a ceasefire deal should violations occur. Lebanese officials have dismissed reports of demands to give the Israeli military operational freedom in southern Lebanon as “speculation.”