The United States is urging Lebanon not to miss the opportunity available to restore calm in the South by implementing UN Resolution 1701, even if it means a gradual implementation of the decision.

US envoy and mediator Amos Hochstein has been exerting efforts to end nearly five months of intensifying hostilities between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel after the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war.

Prominent parliamentary sources said that although the Quintet Committee on Lebanon suspended its activity until after the end of the holiday season, that did not prevent the United States Ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, from intensifying her meetings with Lebanese officials, Asharq Al-Awsat said.

Johnson has first urged Lebanon’s parliamentarian to end the deadlock preventing the election of a new president, and secondly underscored the necessity of creating political conditions to prevent a spillover of the Gaza war into Lebanon by gradually implementing Resolution 1701, which is what the American mediator is working towards.

The US ambassador was quoted as saying that Hochstein’s shuttle movements between Lebanon and Israel are meant to find a common political ground to guarantee the gradual implementation of Resolution 1701.

This involves increasing the number and equipment of the Lebanese army, which will receive full support to restore calm to the Lebanese-Israeli borders..

The spokesman for the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) spokesman Andrea Tenenti has warned that the latest developments on the Lebanese-Israeli border are causing significant concern.

In remarks to the Arab Press Agency on Sunday, Tenenit said that the shelling has become more intense and bloody, reiterating that these developments are very concerning, and that this escalation could lead to a much larger conflict.

Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have been exchanging near-daily fire since October, raising fears all-out conflict could spread across the region.

The cross-border fighting has displaced tens of thousands on both sides and has killed many including Hezbollah fighters and civilians.