AIJAC hopeful as Israel-Lebanon ceasefire takes effect
Ceasefire could be 'an important first step toward what could become a much-needed and long-overdue peace deal between Israel and Lebanon'
A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to take effect at midnight Thursday-Friday after being declared by US President Donald Trump, who also announced he was inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun for peace talks at the White House.
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council said it was hopeful the ceasefire could be “an important first step toward what could become a much-needed and long-overdue peace deal between Israel and Lebanon”.
AIJAC executive director Colin Rubenstein said the planned Netanyahu-Aoun summit, if it went ahead, “would be a major historic breakthrough, providing strong reasons for optimism that peace might finally be possible”.
“It is worth remembering that Israel and Lebanon have no significant territorial or other substantive disputes, and the repeated rounds of conflict between them are almost solely the result of the fact that outside forces, especially Iran, have been determined to put Lebanon on the front line as part of their strategy of surrounding Israel with a ‘ring of fire’,” Rubenstein said.
He said the key to both the ceasefire and longer-term peace would be progress on disarming Hezbollah.
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