Last week, the US envoy for Lebanon, Morgan Ortagus, attended a session of the committee established to monitor the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire put in place almost a year ago. Ms Ortagus brought with her a proposal for how negotiations between the Lebanese and Israelis could proceed.

The ceasefire expanded the so-called Mechanism put in place after the July 2006 war. This is a co-ordination committee to supervise implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The ceasefire agreement added two new members – the US and France – to the tripartite format of Lebanon, Israel and Unifil, the UN force in southern Lebanon, that had been in place, with the US now presiding.

The Mechanism is made up mainly of military representatives, but the US and Israel want to widen this to include civilian representation. Ideally, both countries would like to lock Lebanon into a normalisation process with Israel, something the Lebanese reject for now. Their preference is for indirect negotiations, through the Americans, which is how Lebanon and Israel delineated their maritime border in October 2022.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam (R) meeting with US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus in Beirut, on October 28. Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP

Last March, Axios reported that Lebanon and Israel would soon establish wor