Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a cease-fire with Israel shortly before he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Bouhabib confirmed that Hezbollah had agreed to the cease-fire, saying, “He agreed. Yes, the Lebanese side agreed.”
Bouhabib added that consultations were held with Hezbollah and that Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had also consulted with the group.
“We informed U.S. and French representatives (about the decision),” Bouhabib said, further indicating that both U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron had been brokering the cease-fire.
Bouhabib noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also agreed to the terms laid out in a joint statement released by 12 countries and organizations on Sept. 24, which included the U.S. and France. The statement called for a temporary cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel to facilitate diplomatic efforts.
Nasrallah’s assassination occurred on Sept. 27, when Israeli airstrikes targeted a southern suburb of Beirut. The assassination took place amid heightened tensions and continued cross-border conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which escalated following Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
