2024-09-25 23:28:07
France and the United States have proposed a 21-day ceasefire after days of intense fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. France presented the proposal on Wednesday shortly after a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York. The ceasefire should “enable negotiations,” said France’s new Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.
“It is urgent that all actors commit themselves resolutely to a path of de-escalation,” stressed Barrot. The dangerous escalation of the situation in Lebanon is at the centre of the week-long UN General Debate in New York, which is being attended by more than a hundred heads of state and government from all over the world.
For almost a year, northern Israel has been under constant fire from the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. The Israeli army is responding with counterattacks on Hezbollah targets in the neighboring country. The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that 72 people were killed and almost 400 injured in Israeli attacks on Wednesday in the south and east of Lebanon and in the region around the capital Beirut.
The last war between Israel and Hezbollah began in July 2006. Within 34 days, almost 1,400 people were killed, including 1,200 on the Lebanese side, most of them civilians. The Lebanon War at that time was ended by UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Among other things, it contained demands for the disarmament of Hezbollah and its withdrawal behind the Litani River, the northern border of the agreed demilitarized zone.
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#USA #France #21day #ceasefire #Lebanon
