
US President Donald Trump announced in a Thursday social media post that the governments of Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire that will begin on Thursday evening.
The president also said that he would be inviting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House to establish a more lasting truce between the two countries.
Israel has for weeks has been conducting a relentless bombing campaign and ground invasion in Lebanon that has killed and wounded thousands of people while displacing over 1 million.
The ceasefire announcement does not mean that lasting peace has been achieved, given that the deal was between the Israeli and Lebanese governments but not the political and militant group Hezbollah.
Nicholas Grossman, professor of international relations at the University of Illinois, said that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon is “a weird thing to tout, since Lebanon isn’t a combatant” and “there is no Lebanese fire for the Lebanese government to cease.”
Amichai Stein, diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s i24News, reported that members of Netanyahu’s Cabinet were “outraged” during a meeting because Trump announced “Israel’s consent to a ceasefire before Security Cabinet approval.”
Iran has been insisting on a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon as a precondition for continuing negotiations about ending the war with the US, which Trump launched illegally in late February without any authorization from Congress.
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