Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that Israel supports the United States’ decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks.
However, the Israeli government emphasized that the ceasefire will not apply to Lebanon. In a statement on X on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel backed US President Donald Trump’s efforts to ensure that “Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile, and terror threat to America, Israel, Iran’s Arab neighbors, and the world.”
He added that the US had assured Israel of its commitment to achieving these goals in upcoming negotiations scheduled in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Friday.Despite the truce between the US and Iran, Netanyahu clarified that the two-week ceasefire “does not include Lebanon.
”This statement came shortly after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that the US, Iran, and their allies “have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere,” noting that the agreement was “effective immediately.”
Lebanon became involved in the US and Israel’s war on Iran on March 2, after Tehran-aligned Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel. Hezbollah claimed the attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, February 28, and for Israel’s near-daily violations of a ceasefire agreed to in Lebanon in November 2024.
The earlier ceasefire had been reached after more than a year of cross-border conflict between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, following Israel’s military campaign in Gaza that began in October 2023.
According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli strikes on Lebanon since March 2 have killed over 1,500 people and displaced more than 1 million. The Israeli military has also launched an invasion of southern Lebanon, reportedly aiming to establish a buffer zone and seize additional territory.
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