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CNN Acting as Useful Idiots for Hezbollah?

Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File

Yesterday, CNN's Christiane Amanpour interviewed Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. During that interview, Habib claimed that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a US proposed ceasefire deal just hours before his death as the result of an Israeli airstrike.

CNN followed that up with a standalone story about the claim today. That story includes comments from two anonymous "Western sources" who claim the US knew that Hezbollah had agreed to the deal.

A Western source familiar with the negotiations also said Hezbollah had agreed to the temporary truce shortly before the US released the proposal last week. The source didn’t say whether the decision had come directly from Nasrallah, but said that for the movement to agree, they would have needed his approval. A second source familiar with the talks agreed that the US was aware that Hezbollah was agreeing to the ceasefire.

Not true says the State Department's spokesperson Matthew Miller. No one ever told them that Nasrallah had agreed.

“I can’t speak to whether he ever agreed to it and told somebody inside Lebanon. Obviously, that could be something that happened that we wouldn’t be aware of. I can tell you that, if that’s true, it was never communicated to us in any way shape or form,” Miller told CNN at a press briefing Thursday.

“We were having a number of diplomatic engagements to talk about the proposals that we were going to put forward. I think all of the parties were well aware of the proposals that we were going to put forward, but at no time in those conversations did we get a message that Hezbollah had agreed or was going to agree to it,” Miller said.

That's followed by a very odd paragraph which states that "Hezbollah never officially announced their position publicly." Okay, but the US denial seems to indicate that they never announced it privately either, at least not to the US. So how do we know the claims are true? 

I'm honestly not sure how to square this circle. The Washington Free Beacon points out that in the days before his death Hassan Nasrallah was still giving approval for constant attacks on Israel.

...Nasrallah had spent months greenlighting near-daily missile attacks on Israel in the wake of Oct. 7, including the day before his death, which came while he was meeting with his senior commanders. One week before the Hezbollah HQ strike, meanwhile, Nasrallah said Hezbollah would unleash a "reckoning" on Israel.

The airstrike that killed Nasrallah happened on Sep. 27 around the time Netanyahu was speaking to the UN. Here's what happened in the two days prior according to NPR:

Sept. 25: Early in the morning, Hezbollah launches a long-range missile that reaches Tel Aviv airspace before being shot down by Israeli forces — the first time the militant group has launched a missile like this toward central Israel. Israel continued its airstrike campaign across much of southern Lebanon, killing at least another 72 people and injuring about 400, according to Lebanese health officials...

Sept. 26: Amidst the backdrop of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the U.S. and France, backed by other members of the G-7, propose a 21-day cease-fire plan between Israel and Lebanon. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are quick to reject it.

Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets toward northern Israel, most of which were intercepted, while Israel says it carried out more than 200 airstrikes in Lebanon, killing another 92 people and wounding more than 150, according to Lebanese health officials.

Hezbollah certainly wasn't acting as if they were eager to deescalate the conflict. Middle East analyst Michael Rubin told the Free Beacon that Amanpour "allowed herself to be used as a useful idiot."  He continued:

"How did the Lebanese foreign minister have inside information about Nasrallah that no one else did?" Rubin asked. "By throwing gasoline on the embers of conspiracy, she is essentially committing arson and will get people killed."

According to Habib, the French knew about this too. I guess we'll have to wait and see what they have to say or whether any of the "western sources" speaking to CNN agree to speak up under their own names.

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