WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has kept the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump closely informed about its efforts to mediate the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which the outgoing Democratic administration said would end early Wednesday came into effect.
Trump's team, meanwhile, was quick to pump the football and take credit for the rare good news for a Democratic administration dragged down by the protracted conflict in the Middle East.
“Everyone is coming to the table because of President Trump,” Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump's pick for his national security adviser, said in a post on X on Tuesday, shortly before Israel's Cabinet signed the deal. “His resounding victory sent a clear message to the rest of the world that chaos will not be tolerated. I am happy to see concrete steps towards de-escalation in the Middle East.”
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The Biden administration's reported coordination with Trump's team in its efforts to broker the ceasefire in Lebanon is perhaps the most striking example of cooperation in a sometimes choppy transition period.
Trump's transition team reached a required agreement with President Joe Biden's White House on Tuesday, allowing transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before Trump takes office on January 20. There has been some high-level coordination between the outgoing Biden and the new Trump teams, including conversations between Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Waltz.
In Rose Garden remarks on Tuesday, Biden hailed the ceasefire as a crucial step that he hoped could be the catalyst for broader peace in the Middle East, which has been rocked by nearly 14 months of war after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. , 2023.
“This is intended to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden said. “Whatever remains of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed – I emphasize, will not be allowed – to threaten Israel's security again.”
White House officials are now hopeful that a calm in Lebanon will give new impetus to multi-nation efforts to find an endgame to the devastating war in Gaza, where Hamas continues to hold dozens of hostages and the conflict becomes more intractable is.
Biden said the US, as well as Israel, will hold talks with officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey in the coming days to try to get the Gaza talks back on track.
But during Biden's moment of success in a conflict that has damaged his reputation at home and abroad, the specter of the incoming Trump administration loomed.
Trump's senior national security team was briefed by the Biden administration as negotiations unfolded and finally reached a conclusion on Tuesday, a senior Biden administration official said. The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity during a White House-arranged call, added that incoming Trump administration officials were not directly involved in the talks but that it was important they knew “where we negotiated and what the commitments were.”
Trump's team and allies, meanwhile, said there was no doubt that the prospect of the Republican president returning to power motivated both sides to finalize the deal.
Waltz not only credited Trump for brokering the ceasefire, but also added a warning to Iran, Hezbollah's main backer.
“But let us be clear: the Iranian regime is the root cause of the chaos and terror unleashed across the region. We will not tolerate the status quo of their support of terrorism,” Waltz said in his post.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, also gave a shoutout to the new administration while giving a nod to Biden's team.
“I appreciate the hard work of the Biden administration, supported by President Trump, to make this ceasefire a reality,” Graham said in a statement.
Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington Group Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said this moment adds to the fact that Iran — which he said would have been necessary to get Hezbollah to agree to the ceasefire — is carefully weighing what awaits us with Trump.
“There is no doubt that Iran will withdraw to regroup before Trump comes to power,” said Goldberg, a National Security Council official in Trump's first administration. “It's a combination of Israeli military success and Trump's election – the ayatollah has no clothes and he knows we know it.”
The Biden White House also harbors a glimmer of hope that Lebanon's ceasefire could help revive a long-sought normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The official said “a lot of work has been done” to put such an agreement on track “but it is clear that where we are in Gaza is holding us back.”
Biden has said his administration was tantalizingly close to reaching a deal between the Middle East's two main powers shortly before the Hamas attack sent tremors across the region. He has speculated that the emerging normalization deal was part of Hamas's motivation to carry out its attack on Israel when it did.
Just weeks before the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat next to Biden on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly and marveled that a “historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia” seemed within reach – a diplomatic advance whose Israeli leader predicted it could lead. for lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The so-called normalization drive, which began during Trump's first administration and was called the Abraham Accords, is an ambitious effort to reshape the region and strengthen Israel's position.
The Biden White House plans to keep the incoming Trump administration informed of its efforts and “anything we will do in this area … we will not do this unless they know what we are doing,” the Biden administration official said .
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Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Zeke Miller and Chris Megerian contributed reporting.
