Lebanese PM “optimistic” about Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire “within the next few hours or days”

“We are doing our best and are optimistic that within the next few hours or days we will have a ceasefire,” Mikati said Wednesday in an interview with Lebanese media outlet, Al Jadeed.

“[Hochstein’s] mere movement is a sign of hope. We hope that it will be translated into a ceasefire, and we will see him before the end of the week in Beirut,” Mikati added.

Hochstein and fellow White House official Brett McGurk will be in Israel Thursday for discussions about Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, the hostages and “other regional matters”. Separately, CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to be in Egypt’s Cairo.

Tel Aviv and the White House had earlier downplayed a reported ceasefire draft proposal circulating in Israeli media.

The White House gave the same message, with National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett telling CNN that purported drafts shared online do not reflect the current state of ceasefire talks.

Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are pursuing a short-term ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah for at least a month, an Israeli official told CNN on Wednesday.

During that time, negotiations over a final agreement to end the war between the two sides and enforce United Nations Resolution 1701 would take place.

Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, said his fighters would agree to a ceasefire only if Israel stopped its “aggression” and if the proposal is seen “as suitable”.

“If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say that we accept, but according to the conditions that we see as suitable,” Qassem stressed, speaking from an undisclosed location in a prerecorded televised address.

“We will not beg for a ceasefire as we will continue [fighting] … no matter how long it takes,” he added.

Qassem has replaced Hezbollah’s former longtime leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on a Beirut suburb in late September. He had served as deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah for more than three decades.

His speech came as Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported that 30 people were killed in Israeli attacks over the previous 24 hours, and 165 others were wounded, raising the total death toll in Lebanon over the past year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel to 2,822 killed and 12,937 wounded.