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Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to implement a conditional ceasefire that would require a “complete cessation” of fire by Iran-backed Hezbollah, according to a joint statement issued following US-led talks in Washington.
The joint statement said the ceasefire was “contingent on a complete cessation” of fire by Hezbollah as well as evacuation of the group’s operatives from southern Lebanon.
However, with the conditional deal based on Hezbollah, it remains unclear how events would unfold. On Tuesday, a senior Hezbollah official, Mahmud Qomati, had warned the group would “not accept a partial ceasefire”.
Wednesday’s talks in Washington were the fourth round of direct talks by Lebanese and Israeli diplomats since fighting erupted on 2 March, when Hezbollah renewed attacks against Israel in support of Iran.
The two sides, which do not have formal diplomatic relations, also agreed to create “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese armed forces “will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors”.
The ceasefire comes as Israel has recently escalated its attacks and is staging its deepest ground offensive into Lebanon in two decades.
Trump wants separate talks on Lebanon
Earlier, US President Donald Trump, who confirmed having a tense phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s expanded military campaign in Lebanon, said he wanted to separate talks on the conflict and those on the war with Iran.
“I’d like to separate it; I’d like to have a separate thing because it is, it is separate,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
Tehran, however, insists the conflicts are linked, and its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned that any attack on Beirut would trigger a “full-scale resumption” of war.
Both sides will meet for more talks the week of 22 June, “with a view toward reaching a comprehensive agreement”, Wednesday’s statement said.
Hostilities continue in Lebanon
On Wednesday, fighting continued in cross-border attacks, with Hezbollah saying it targeted Israeli troops and Israeli strikes killing at least nine people in southern Lebanon.
Two rockets and a “hostile aircraft” entered Israeli territory from Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.
On Israel’s military actions, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli strikes targeting a car on the main highway out of the capital
The agency also reported strikes on more than 20 locations in the south, some after Israel’s military warned residents of several villages to evacuate.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli attack on Al-Hawsh near the city of Tyre killed four Syrians and two Palestinians, a claim that an Israeli military spokesperson reportedly denied according to media reports. “We are not aware of any such attack having occurred in the area.”
According to the Lebanese health ministry, an Israeli strike elsewhere in the south targeted an ambulance, killing two paramedics from the Risala Scouts Association, which is affiliated with Hezbollah’s ally the Amal movement.
The ministry circulated images of a badly damaged ambulance, with medical masks spilling out of the vehicle and scattered on the road.
At least 130 emergency and health workers have been killed since the fighting began, according to local figures.