ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Israeli airstrikes shook southern Beirut today, and Hezbollah has continued to fire hundreds of rockets across the so-called Blue Line into Israel. But there are some signs of a diplomatic deal in the works. A spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby, says a ceasefire deal could be close.
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JOHN KIRBY: This is a - remains an important priority for President Biden. That's why we have been working hard to mediate this deal, so that people can return to their lives and their homes around the Blue Line and the rockets and missiles can stop.
SHAPIRO: He says things are moving in the right direction, but a deal is not done yet. NPR's Michele Kelemen joins us from the State Department. Hey, Michele.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: What can you tell us about the deal that's taking shape?
KELEMEN: Well, Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, says it's not going to end the war overnight. He says this will happen in stages, and the goal is to get Hezbollah to pull back from the border with Israel. A U.N. Security Council resolution that passed back in 2006 to end the last war in Lebanon demanded that Hezbollah pull back, and Danon says the Israelis have learned a lesson from that. Take a listen.
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DANNY DANON: We will make sure that we will have the ability to neutralize any threat that will not be dealt in southern Lebanon. I hope that the Lebanese Army will take care of that in the future, but if they will fail again, we will be there.
KELEMEN: And that's been one of the real sticking points, Ari. Israel wants to make sure that whatever deal is signed, Israeli forces can go back into southern Lebanon if Israel doesn't think the Lebanese armed forces are doing their job. There is a U.N. peacekeeping mission there too, but the Israelis don't really have a lot of trust in them since Hezbollah has been able to fire thousands of rockets into Israel for the past year despite the fact that the U.N. was there.
SHAPIRO: So when we hear officials saying they are close to a deal, any idea of how close is close?
KELEMEN: Well, they've said it before, so it's good to be a little bit skeptical. Lebanon's deputy parliament speaker says a deal is close, but nothing is guaranteed. Lebanese authorities do want this war to end. Nearly 4,000 people have been killed so far in Israeli strikes and raids in recent months. And, you know, Israel has an interest in seeing this war end, too. Hezbollah has suffered some pretty big setbacks. Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iranian-backed group, back in September, but that hasn't stopped the Hezbollah rocket fire.
A ceasefire could do that and could help Israel achieve its goal, which is to make it safe enough for Israelis to move back to their homes in northern Israel. The Israeli cabinet is due to meet tomorrow on this. A right-wing member of Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet already is rejecting the idea of a ceasefire now, but there is a lot of international pressure to really get this done.
SHAPIRO: The Biden administration, of course, is only in office until January 20. Does that lame duck quality make a difference in these talks?
KELEMEN: Well, you know, President-elect Trump has said that he will end the wars in the Middle East. It seems like the Biden administration is trying to kind of leverage that idea to get a ceasefire done now. It's not clear, though, that the Israeli prime minister will want to do this now or wait until January to give Trump credit for a deal. We'll have to see what his cabinet decides tomorrow. The State Department spokesman said anything anyone can do to get a diplomatic resolution would be helpful, but he's not aware of any contacts with the Trump team, at least from this building. You know, there's no formal transition team in place yet over here at the State Department.
SHAPIRO: Right. NPR's Michele Kelemen, thank you.
KELEMEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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