Live Updates: Israel vows response to Iranian attack as central Beirut hit

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just days before his assassination by Israel.

The temporary ceasefire was called for by US President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and other allies during the UN General Assembly last week.

“He [Nasrallah] agreed, he agreed,” Habib Christiane Amanpour said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was then prepared to travel to Lebanon to negotiate the ceasefire, Habib continued.

“They told us that Mr. Netanyahu agreed to it, and so we got Hezbollah’s approval of it, and you know what has happened since then,” Habib continued.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday.

A day earlier, the United States, France, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Qatar called for a 21-day ceasefire in a joint statement “to… “To give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border.”

Responding to a question about America's declining influence in the region, Habib said Washington is “always important in this regard.”

“I don’t think we have an alternative. We need the help of the United States. Whether we'll get it or not, we're not sure yet, but [the] The United States is very important and crucial for the ceasefire to come about,” Habib said.