The agreement, validated Tuesday evening by the Israeli government on the recommendation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was immediately confirmed by the American and French presidents, Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron. The latter affirmed in a joint declaration that their two countries would work with Israel and Lebanon “to ensure that this arrangement is fully implemented and enforced.”
The sixty-day truce, with a permanent vocation, “is a major victory for the White House, which has sought to finalize détente with Hezbollah in the final weeks of Biden’s presidency”analyse Politico. “The agreement was reached after a series of negotiations in the Middle East last week” between American special envoy Amos Hochstein and Lebanese and Israeli officials, the site adds.
The ceasefire agreement “provides for a sixty-day transition period during which the Israeli army must withdraw from southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army deploy in areas near the border and Hezbollah move its heavy weapons north of the Litani River”, detailed Axios.
If it holds, the truce “will end more than a year of violence, which began when Hezbollah began launching strikes against Israel on October 8, 2023, saying they would continue as long as Israel waged its war against the people of Gaza” , observe Al-Jazeera.
“Isolate Hamas”
According to Lebanese authorities, more than 3,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, most of them in the last two months. The hostilities have displaced some 900,000 people, according to the UN.
“Western diplomats and much of the Middle East hope that [la trêve] will mark a de-escalation of regional tensions after months of escalating violence that included the assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders and a direct confrontation with Iran,” REMARK The Times.
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