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The world was relieved on Wednesday when Pakistan mounted an overnight diplomatic push to secure a temporary ceasefire and bring Washington and Tehran into direct negotiations. Things, however, were different for Lebanon.
Israel launched its heaviest and most coordinated air assault on Lebanon since its conflict with Hezbollah began on March 2 amid the Middle East war, killing more than 250 people.
The assault proceeded even as the Hezbollah paused its own attacks, abiding by what sources close to the group said it understood to be an inclusive truce.
On the other hand, Israel and the US insisted that Lebanon was not part of the temporary ceasefire. But Iranian officials rejected that interpretation, saying partial ceasefires were unacceptable and warning of a “decisive response” if violations continued.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now said he has instructed Israel to begin peace talks with Lebanon that would also include the disarmament of Hezbollah.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has also reported to have said that a truce proposal with Israel and the commencement of direct negotiations with Israel had begun, and so far had received a “positive response.
Nevertheless, the day-long Israeli assault on Lebanon on Wednesday, which the UN described as “carnage”, has been condemned worldwide.
To begin with, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Israel’s strikes, “signal deception and non-compliance” and render negotiations “meaningless”.
“Our hands remain on the trigger. Iran will never forsake its Lebanese brothers and sisters,” he added in a post on X.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the massive wave of Israeli strikes, saying: “With the announcement of the ceasefire between Iran and the USA, the ongoing military activity in Lebanon poses a grave risk to the ceasefire and the efforts toward a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region,” Guterres said on X.
“Hostilities must stop immediately,” he added.
Guterres stressed that international law must be respected and that civilians must be protected at all times, calling attacks against them “unacceptable”.
“There is no military solution to the conflict.”
UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk also condemned Israel’s strikes in a statement.
“The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific,” he said. “Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief. It places enormous pressure on a fragile peace.”
China, meanwhile, said Lebanon’s sovereignty “should not be violated” after Israel carried out the strikes.
“Lebanon’s sovereignty and security should not be violated. The safety of civilian lives and property must be guaranteed,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press conference, adding that Beijing urged restraint and “a cooling down of the regional situation”.
Russia said that the Middle East truce must cover Lebanon, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailing the pause in fighting in a phone call with Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a read-out that “Moscow firmly believes that these agreements … have a regional dimension and, in particular, apply to Lebanon.”
In a separate statement, the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned Israeli attacks on Lebanon, saying that “such aggressive actions threaten to derail the emerging negotiation process”.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon could jeopardise peace talks expected between the United States and Iran over the war in the Middle East.
“We view the situation in southern Lebanon with particular concern,” Merz told reporters. “The severity with which Israel is waging war there could cause the peace process as a whole to fail, and that must not be allowed to happen.”
Additionally, the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said that Israeli actions are “putting the US-Iran ceasefire under severe strain” and called for the truce to extend to Lebanon.
“Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the war, but Israel’s right to defend itself does not justify inflicting such massive destruction,” she said on X. “Israeli strikes killed hundreds last night, making it hard to argue that such heavy-handed actions fall within self-defence.”
France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot also condemned the strikes, calling them “unacceptable”.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper also called for the ceasefire to include Lebanon in comments to Sky News.
“We do want to see the ceasefire extended to Lebanon. I’m deeply troubled about the escalating attacks that we saw from Israel in Lebanon yesterday,” Cooper said.
“We’ve seen the humanitarian consequences, the huge mass displacement of people in Lebanon. So we do strongly want to see the ceasefire extended to Lebanon,” she added.
Header image: A rescuer stands at the site of an Israeli strike carried out on Wednesday, in Al-Mazraa in Beirut, Lebanon on April 9. — Reuters
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