No ceasefire in Lebanon: Bibi

Premier calls for talks, as Israel launches fresh strikes

Agencies

Jerusalem

PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said there is no ceasefire in Lebanon and Israel will continue to strike Hezbollah with full force, as the military launched fresh strikes. 

Netanyahu’s remarks and attacks on what the IDF called Hezbollah launch sites came after US President Donald Trump asked Netanyahu to be more low-key in Lebanon.

Israeli air strikes have continued to hit Lebanon, with 21 people killed, authorities said. Hezbollah has also fired more rockets at several places in Israel, BBC reported.

Officials said the dead included seven members of the family in Abbassieh and 11 people in Zrarieh. A medical centre in Burj Qalaway was also hit, killing two people, while a drone strike targeted an ambulance in Toul, with no casualties reported.

A US state department official said Israel and Lebanon would hold talks in Washing­ton next week. Netanyahu ordered his ministers to seek direct talks with Lebanon focused on disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Neither Israel nor Lebanon has publicly confirmed the talks.

Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran did not want war with the US and Israel, but would protect its rights. “We did not seek war and we do not want it,” he said, adding Iran would not renounce legitimate rights and considered the resistance front as a whole.

Iran warned it would again close the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks. President Masoud Pezeshkian said negotiations were meaningless as long as Israel continued to bomb Lebanon, placing US-Iranian talks in Pakistan scheduled for Saturday in doubt. Pezeshkian vowed Iran would not abandon the Lebanese people.

Deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Pakistan urged restraint to safeguard a broader peace agreement. Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif condemned Israel’s ongoing aggression against Lebanon.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said while Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into war, Israel’s right to self-defence does not justify such massive destruction. French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot co­ndemned the strikes as unacceptable, while British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said they were deeply damaging.

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