Israel backs US-Iran temporary ceasefire

Israel insists that the two-week ceasefire agreement between US and Iran "does not include Lebanon".

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JERUSALEM: Israel said on Wednesday (Apr 8) it supported US President Donald Trump's decision to suspend his bombing of Iran, but maintained the 11th-hour ceasefire did not include Lebanon.

Washington and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday, barely an hour before Trump's deadline to obliterate Iran was set to expire.

Tehran said it would guarantee safe passage for maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks, announcing that the pause would be used for talks with the United States on ending the war. Negotiations were set to start Friday in Pakistan.

"Israel supports President Trump's decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks subject to Iran immediately opening the straits and stopping all attacks on the US, Israel and countries in the region," the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israel added that it "supports the US effort to ensure that Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile and terror threat".

But the statement said that the ceasefire "does not include Lebanon", contradicting an earlier announcement by Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has acted as a mediator in the conflict.

Sharif said that the United States and its allies had agreed to a ceasefire "everywhere including Lebanon", suggesting Israel had agreed to halt its invasion of its northern neighbour.

Lebanon was drawn into the war after Iran-backed group Hezbollah launched rocket fire on Israel.

That attack sparked an Israeli invasion and air raids across Lebanon that have killed more than 1,500 people, according to authorities.

Israel had encouraged Trump to join the war against Iran, its arch-nemesis, and in the first strikes in February killed the long-serving supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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