United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 states that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in southern Lebanon, while demanding the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory.

Attention has focused on the resolution during the latest Israel-Hezbollah war that erupted last month after nearly a year of cross-border fire.

"The commitment that we have is to resolve this conflict based on (UN Resolution) 1701 -- that is what the solution is going to have to look like," Hochstein said on his first visit to Beirut since the war started.

Resolution "1701 was successful at ending the war in 2006 but we must be honest that no one did anything to implement it," he added, saying: "Both sides simply committing to 1701 is just not enough."

"We have to put things in place that would allow for confidence that it will be implemented for everyone," he told a press conference after meeting Lebanon's Hezbollah-allied speaker of parliament Nabih Berri.

"We have to know this is not just going to another round of conflict in a month or a year or two years," he said.

The US envoy was last in Beirut in August, after months of shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon and Israel with the aim of averting a full-blown conflict.
 

US special envoy Amos Hochstein speaks to reporters after a meeting with Lebanon's Parliament Speaker in Beirut. AFP

On Monday, he met with Berri, while Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit also visited the speaker's Beirut residence as part of a one-day trip.

Hochstein also met Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who is pushing for a diplomatic solution tied to resolution 1701.

In an interview with the Al-Arabiya network broadcast Monday, ahead of the arrival of a U.S. envoy, Najib Mikati said a new resolution appeared unlikely.

“There is no solution but a diplomatic solution, and the diplomatic solution is currently on the table,” he said.

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