BEIRUT (AP) — A top Iranian official held talks Friday with Lebanese leaders on the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah , which came as the United States continued actively pushing both sides to agree to a new cease-fire deal. The visit of Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, to the Lebanese capital was punctuated with a renewed aerial attack by Israel on the southeastern edge of the city. An image captured by an Associated Press photographer showed what appeared to be an 11-story residential building in the Tayouneh area, few kilometers (miles) from central Beirut, about to be hit by a bomb, then bursting into flames.
There were no immediate reports of casualties but the bomb hit a lower level of the building, turning much of it to rubble. The Israeli military had issued a warning ahead of the attack, claiming it was a facility that belonged to Hezbollah. The U.
S. has been trying to broker an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which came as the 13-month war with Hamas broadened in September into southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, and Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel on Oct.
7, 2023 ignited the war in Gaza. According to reports in Lebanese media, U.S.
Ambassador Lisa Johnson has handed over a draft of a proposed deal to end the Israel-Hezbollah war to Parliament Speaker Nabih Ber.
