US dispatches senior envoy to cool seething tensions on Israel-Lebanon border

US President Joe Biden has dispatched special envoy Amos Hochstein to the region as Washington intensifies its diplomatic engagement in a bid to lower roiling tensions between Israel and Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, Report informs via The Times of Israel.

Hochstein, who heavily involved in shepherding talks that culminated in Israel and Lebanon demarcating a maritime border in 2022, is set to arrive in Israel later Thursday.

A senior Biden administration official briefing reporters Wednesday said Hochstein just met with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib and that the US has a “diplomatic effort underway to help resolve some of the tension” between Israel and Hezbollah, without elaborating further.

Israeli officials plan to tell Hochstein that without a diplomatic agreement in place to push Hezbollah away from the border, it won’t be able to return residents to northern towns, the Kan public broadcaster reported Wednesday.