Welcome back to World Brief, where we look at the details of a proposed 60-day ceasefire between Israel And Hezbollah in Lebanonthe murder of a rabbi in the United Arab Emiratesand an emergency NATO-Ukraine session to deal with Russian threats.

‘We think we have a deal’

Israel’s cabinet will vote on Tuesday on a proposed ceasefire with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly approved the deal “in principle” late Sunday. The US-backed deal would establish a 60-day ceasefire, entail the withdrawal of the Israeli army and Hezbollah from southern Lebanon and deploy regular Lebanese army troops to the border area within two months, effectively creating a buffer zone south of the Litani River would be created.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we look at the details of a proposed 60-day ceasefire between Israel And Hezbollah in Lebanonthe murder of a rabbi in the United Arab Emiratesand an emergency NATO-Ukraine session to deal with Russian threats.

‘We think we have a deal’

Israel’s cabinet will vote on Tuesday on a proposed ceasefire with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly approved the deal “in principle” late Sunday. The US-backed deal would establish a 60-day ceasefire, entail the withdrawal of the Israeli army and Hezbollah from southern Lebanon and deploy regular Lebanese army troops to the border area within two months, effectively creating a buffer zone south of the Litani River would be created.

An agreement could be announced “within hours,” Israeli Ambassador to the United States Mike Herzog said. The details are still being negotiated; However, Lebanon’s deputy speaker of parliament, Elias Bou Saab, told Reuters there were “no serious obstacles” left to begin implementation.

Diplomacy has largely focused on restoring United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah by establishing the 120-kilometer Blue Line, a de facto border between Israel and Lebanon. Negotiating parties hope such an agreement will allow hundreds of thousands of civilians on both sides to return to their homes after heavy bombardments forced them to flee.

Following pressure from Netanyahu to strengthen Israel’s right to self-defense in the ceasefire agreement, the US proposal reportedly agreed to give Israel guarantees, including the right to take military action against imminent threats, and to disrupt the establishment of a Hezbollah presence or heavy weapons. smuggling near the border.

US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to announce the ceasefire on Tuesday, if approved. “We think we have a deal,” a US official told Axios, adding: “We are on the goal line, but we are not over it yet. The Israeli cabinet must approve the deal on Tuesday, and until then something can always go wrong.”

Despite ceasefire negotiations nearing an end, cross-border attacks between Israeli and Hezbollah forces have continued – and some experts fear one wrong step could disrupt the dialogue. On Saturday, an Israeli attack on Beirut killed more than 29 people and injured more than 65 others. Three Israeli defense officials said this New York Times that the attack aimed to kill a top Hezbollah military commander, Mohammad Haidar, although an official said Haidar was not killed.

In response, Hezbollah fired about 250 projectiles into Israel on Sunday in one of the largest airstrikes on the country in the past year. On Monday, Hezbollah launched another 40 rockets at northern Israel. More than 3,700 Lebanese have been killed and another 15,000 injured since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah flared up again with the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict last October.

“We have a real chance to end conflicts. The window is now,” US special envoy to the Middle East Amos Hochstein said last week. But a ceasefire, he said, is ultimately “the decision of the parties involved.”

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The world this week

Tuesday November 26: The NATO-Ukraine Council meets to discuss Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov in Berlin.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visits Athens.

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is holding early elections.

Wednesday November 27: Namibia holds general elections.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson receives leaders from the Scandinavian and Baltic countries.

Italy is finally hosting the Mediterranean Dialogue.

Thursday November 28: Kazakhstan is hosting the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu begins a two-day visit to Paris.

Friday November 29: Ireland holds a general election.

Saturday November 30: Iceland is holding early parliamentary elections.

Sunday December 1: Romania holds parliamentary elections.

Monday December 2: Netanyahu testifies on allegations of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.

Biden embarks on a three-day trip to Angola.

What we follow

‘Anti-Semitic terrorist act.’ Authorities in the United Arab Emirates arrested three Uzbek nationals on Monday in connection with the murder of an Israeli Moldovan rabbi. The body of 28-year-old Zvi Kogan was discovered on Sunday after Kogan went missing in Dubai last Thursday. Kogan was the Abu Dhabi representative for Chabad Lubavitch, a global religious movement of Hasidic Judaism. The UAE Interior Ministry did not provide a motive for Kogan’s death, but an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said he was killed “because of who he was.”

“The murder of an Israeli citizen and Chabad emissary is a heinous, anti-Semitic act of terror,” Netanyahu said on Sunday, vowing to use whatever means necessary to bring the suspects to justice. Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas last year, anti-Semitic attacks have increased, including a recent attack on hundreds of Israeli football fans in Amsterdam this month.

At the same time, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said Kogan’s death would not worsen bilateral ties with the UAE. “In any case, we will only use this event to further and deepen our cooperation with our Emirati colleagues,” the Israeli official said. Israel and the UAE established formal diplomatic relations in 2020 with the signing of the Abraham Accords.

Rocket talks. NATO and Ukraine will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s recent use of a new hypersonic ballistic missile. Moscow launched the experimental intermediate-range Oreshnik weapon at a Ukrainian military facility in Dnipro last Thursday in response to the United States and Britain allowing Kiev to use their long-range missile systems against limited targets deep inside Russia.

The conflict “is entering a decisive phase,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin claims Western air defense systems cannot stop the Oreshnik weapon, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kiev is already working on new systems to counter it.

These escalations follow Putin formally lowering the Kremlin’s nuclear threshold last week in a direct warning to NATO members. Under the new policy, any aggression against Moscow by a member of a military alliance will be seen as “an aggression of the entire bloc.”

Climate finance. The UN Climate Change Conference (known as COP29) on Sunday in Baku, Azerbaijan, adopted an annual financing target of $300 billion to help developing countries tackle climate change.

“Developing countries are responsible for a disproportionately small share of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet face the worst impacts of climate change, often with fewer resources to cope,” FP’s Christina Lu reported. Sunday’s deal marks a major increase from an earlier pledge of $100 billion a year by 2020, and lays the groundwork for next year’s summit, to be held in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

While some delegates welcomed the agreement, many countries felt the policy did not go far enough. “I regret to say that this document is nothing more than an optical illusion,” said Chandni Raina, representative of the Indian delegation. Despite delegates increasing funding by $200 billion a year, some economists say the target does not take inflation into account and is far below what developing countries need, which they calculate is $1.3 trillion a year.

The agreement also did not detail how countries will respond to last year’s pledge to shift away from fossil fuels and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Odds and Ends

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte is not taking any risks. On Saturday, she announced that she has contracted a hitman to kill Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos “Bongbong” Jr., his wife and House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself is killed.

Her lawyer has since tried to dismiss her comments as simple concern over an unspecified threat to Duterte’s life, but authorities have already referred the situation to an elite presidential guard “for immediate appropriate action” while increasing Bongbong’s security . On Monday, the president described Duterte’s threat as a criminal plot and vowed to fight back.