US Deputy Defense Secretary Dan Shapiro is in Israel to discuss the monitoring mechanism for the ceasefire between Tel Aviv and Hezbollah, which will be led by the United States.
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Daniel B. Shapiro was scheduled to meet with senior Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, in Tel Aviv on Monday to discuss the ceasefire deal. between Israel and Lebanon) and, more particularly, of the monitoring mechanism which will be led by the United States.
Israeli and American officials believe that an agreement with Lebanon could be concluded as early as this week, according to information broadcast Monday on Israeli public radio Kan Reshet Bet, as well as by the American site Axios. According to the Kan 11 channel and Axios, which cites an American official, the agreement with Lebanon has already been finalized. The Israeli war cabinet is expected to hold a meeting on Tuesday to examine the version of the text, some points of which remained unresolved due to Israeli and Lebanese reservations. These would relate, on the Israeli side, to the presence of France within the committee monitoring the application of resolution 1701 of the UN Security Council and to Tel Aviv’s desire to control that Hezb consistent with the provisions of this resolution, which Lebanon would have rejected. Israel also rejected a Lebanese request to settle disputed points on the southern border.
It is worth noting that the US President’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein, had warned that he would withdraw from the discussions if a deal was not reached in the coming days.
Dan Shapiro’s visit to Israel is a continuation of Amos Hochstein’s mission. A mission that he knows only too well thanks to his functions since, according to the Israeli journalist, Barak Ravid, Dan Shapiro was, within the Pentagon, to “coordinate, among other things, security relations with Israel, the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea”, a hot topic for some time, and, more importantly, “the fight against Iranian proxies”.
His visit to Israel therefore aims to discuss the practical details relating to the envisaged truce agreement.
At the Pentagon, this diplomat is responsible for the Middle East file. He played a crucial role in supporting and developing the Abraham Accords, the peace treaties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and those between Israel and Bahrain, signed on September 15, 2020, at the White House, under the leadership of former President Donald Trump. Agreements which were later extended to other countries, notably Sudan and Morocco. They were about to be signed between Israel and Saudi Arabia, when Hamas launched its major murderous offensive against the Jewish state on October 7, 2023, triggering a war that lasted more than a year.
Dan Shapiro was appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East on January 8, 2024. He previously served as Senior Advisor for Regional Integration in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the Department of State. 2023 to 2024. In June 2023, he was appointed to the Biden administration to expand Abraham’s reports, which led him to often travel to the countries concerned. One of these missions was to monitor and promote regional projects which fall within the framework of these treaties.
He also served as senior advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy for Iran from 2021 to 2022 and as U.S. Ambassador to Israel from 2011 to 2017.
Before joining the Biden administration (in January 2020), Dan Shapiro was Director of the N7 Initiative. The N of this refers to normalization, while the 7 designates Israel and the six Arab countries which have announced the normalization of their relations with Tel Aviv (Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and United Arab Emirates). It is a partnership between the Atlantic Council, an American think tank dealing with international affairs, and the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation which brings together governmental and non-governmental experts from Israel and the Arab states to formulate concrete recommendations intended to bring tangible benefits to their peoples. The N7 initiative thus seeks to broaden and deepen normalization between the Jewish State and Arab and Muslim countries.
Ambassador Shapiro has held numerous senior foreign policy positions in the Executive Branch and the United States Congress. He served as senior director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council from 2009, when he visited Lebanon, to 2011 and as director of legislative affairs at the National Security Council from 1999 to 2001.
Previously, he served in senior advisory roles to U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and Dianne Feinstein, as well as on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East. .
