(AFP) – Israel and Lebanon on Thursday extended a shaky ceasefire by three weeks, President Donald Trump announced Thursday, as he voiced hope for a historic three-way meeting soon and a potential peace deal. Trump, at a standstill in negotiations with Iran, spoke in glowing terms of peace prospects for Lebanon, even as Hezbollah fired new rockets following deadly Israeli strikes.
“I think there’s a very good chance of having peace. I think it should be an easy one,” Trump told reporters as he met in the White House with ambassadors of the two countries, which have no diplomatic relations. Trump announced that a ceasefire would be extended by three weeks. An initial truce was announced after the first meeting between the ambassadors on April 14 and was due to expire on Sunday.
He said that he expected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to meet jointly with him at the White House during the ceasefire. The two leaders “over the next couple of weeks will be coming here,” Trump said. Aoun earlier denied an account by Trump that he would speak by telephone with Netanyahu.
Lebanese officials said before the meeting that they were seeking a one-month ceasefire extension. Aoun said it should include “a halt to the destruction of homes and attacks on civilians, places of worship, journalists and the medical and educational sectors.” Israel last month launched a major attack on Lebanon, killing over 2,450 people and displacing one million, according to authorities. The offensive came in response to fire by Hezbollah, which has vowed to avenge Israel’s killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the US-Israel war on February 28.
Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said that his country wanted a peace deal with the Lebanese government and believed Hezbollah has been weakened by the attacks on Iran’s cleric-run state. “We’re united with the Lebanese government in wanting to rid the country of this malign influence called Hezbollah,” he said. The two countries have been at war for decades and until last week had not met so directly since 1993.
Just as the ambassadors were meeting with Trump, Hezbollah announced that it had fired rockets at northern Israel “in response to the Israeli enemy’s violation of the ceasefire.” Israel said that the launches were intercepted. Israeli strikes killed five people in Lebanon on Wednesday, as Israel continues to hit what it says are Hezbollah targets despite the ceasefire. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency on Thursday reported an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle near Nabatieh, around 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the border with Israel.
Under the truce terms, Israel says it reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.” Hezbollah also claimed at least two attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and said it targeted a reconnaissance drone. Among the dead on Wednesday was a Lebanese newspaper journalist, Amal Khalil. Israeli troops have also taken over southern Lebanese villages in a 10-kilometer (six-mile) deep “security zone” from its border.
Iran had demanded the truce in Lebanon as a condition to resume talks with Washington on a permanent end to weeks of war. Iran refused to attend a second round of talks with the United States this week due to an ongoing US naval blockade. But Trump extended a truce with Iran indefinitely.
bur-at-ris-sct/jgc – Shaun TANDON
© 2024 AFP
