Biden believes ceasefire still possible despite Israel defying his calls for peace deal

Joe Biden still believes his plans to end the violence in the Middle East are on track despite Israel defying his attempts to broker a peace deal.

The Telegraph understands that the US president insists Israeli assassination of Hezbollah’s leader has weakened the terror organisation enough that a ceasefire deal is still possible.

On Saturday, Mr Biden celebrated the death of Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an air strike on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters just outside Beirut.

“His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” the president said in a statement.

It came despite reports suggesting Mr Biden had been “humiliated” and “embarrassed” by Benjamin Netanyahu during discussions over Washington’s Middle Eastern peace plans.

The US president told allies that he believed the Israeli leader had engaged in a back-and-forth over a ceasefire despite having no intention to stop the strikes against Hezbollah, Politico reported.

A White House spokesman dismissed the accounts of a potential row between the US and Israel.

Mr Netanyahu had privately told US officials that he supported a pause in the fighting with the Lebanon-based terror group.

But he has publicly rejected a US proposal for a 21-day ceasefire with Hezbollah, and has vowed to continue the fighting.

In a speech at the United Nations on Friday, the Israeli prime minister said his armed forces would not stop hitting targets in Lebanon “until we achieve all of our objectives”.

“I wonder about the timing of Israel’s recent onslaught against Hezbollah and how much is linked to Netanyahu seeing Biden as a quasi-lame duck. This was a small window for Israel to act without any substantive or meaningful pushback from the White House. Perfect storm of factors,” Colin P Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Group, said.

On Saturday, Mr Biden said he wanted to end fighting in both Lebanon and Gaza through “diplomatic means”.

“It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability,” he added.

It came as Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, in an air strike on the organisation’s underground headquarters near Beirut.

His death marks a significant escalation in Israeli’s operations to dismantle the terror group, but could also undermine Mr Biden’s attempts to prevent a wider conflict across the Middle East.

A senior general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was also killed in the strike, state media reported on Saturday.

Mohammad Reza Aref, Iran’s vice-president, said Nasrallah’s death would lead to the destruction of Israel, in a sign that the air strikes could drag Tehran further into the conflict.

Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Iraq’s prime minister, also condemned the assassination as a “crime”, another suggestion that Israel’s operations are destabilising the region.

The US has said it is determined to prevent an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary, said a ground incursion by Israeli forces into Lebanon could trigger a wider regional conflict.

He also warned that casualties would “equal or exceed” the number in Gaza.

“An all-out war between Lebanese, Hezbollah and Israel would be devastating for both Lebanon and Israel. And again, we anticipate that we’d see a number of people displaced, casualties that, you know, equal or exceed what we’ve seen in Gaza,” Mr Austin told CNN.