Donald Trump ordered Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah after overnight strikes on Lebanon threatened to derail US-Iran peace talks.
The US president told Israel to “calm down and use your head” after an Israeli air strike on Beirut early on Friday killed 18 people, NBC News reported.
The strike was revenge for the Hezbollah killing of four Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, said Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.
Tehran then walked away from peace talks, planned to take place in Switzerland on Friday, demanding a US guarantee that fighting would stop in Lebanon. Mediators are now scrambling to save the talks, which were due to address how to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme, the core issue in the conflict.
An Israeli official said troops would remain in southern Lebanon, inside an occupied “buffer zone”, but would respect the ceasefire as long as Hezbollah did not attack its forces.
A US official said the ceasefire began at 4pm local time (2pm BST) on Friday.
However, at least 12 Israeli air strikes across southern Lebanon were reported less than an hour after 4pm, and sirens rang out across northern Israel after a suspected drone crossed the border.
