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Iran-backed Hezbollah has rebuffed Washington's initial ideas for cooling tit-for-tat fighting with neighbouring Israel, such as pulling its fighters further from the border, but remains open to U.S. diplomacy to avoid a ruinous war, Lebanese officials said. U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein has been leading a diplomatic outreach to restore security at the Israel-Lebanon frontier as the wider region teeters dangerously towards a major escalation of the conflict ignited by the Gaza war. Attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on shipping in the Red Sea, U.S. strikes in response and fighting elsewhere in the Middle East have added urgency to the efforts. Despite the rejection and Hezbollah's volleys of rockets in support of Gaza, the group's openness to diplomatic contacts signals an aversion to a wider war, one of the Lebanese officials and a security source said, even after an Israeli strike reached Beirut on Jan. 2, killing a Hamas leader. Israel has also said it wants to avoid war, but both sides say they are ready to fight if necessary. Israel warns it will respond more aggressively if a deal to make the border area safe is not reached. Such an escalation would open a major new phase in the regional conflict. So while Hezbollah has rejected US overtures, they are still open to diplomacy to avoid wider war. For more on diplomatic attempts to stave off a wider regional conflict, FRANCE 24's Mark Owen is joined by Dr Filippo Dionigi, Senior Lecturer in Politics-International Relations with regional expertise on the Middle East with a focus on Lebanon, Syrian refugees, and Islamist movements such as Hezbollah. 

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