Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, third from left, State Department Chief of Staff Daniel Holler, center, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, third from right, and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh, second from right, attend a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese delegations hosted by the United States at the State Department in Washington, DC, June 3. AFP-Yonhap
DUBAI — Israel and Lebanon agreed to implement a ceasefire to end hostilities, the Trump administration said on Wednesday, in a boost to hopes for a broader deal to end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Tehran, which had conditioned any deal with the U.S. in part on an end to fighting between Israel and Lebanon, earlier struck Kuwait, damaging its airport and injuring dozens while the U.S. military carried out strikes near the Strait of Hormuz.
The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire is contingent on a complete cessation of fire from the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia and the evacuation of all its operatives from the South Litani Sector, a joint statement released by the U.S. State Department said following negotiations in Washington.
The two sides had agreed last month to a ceasefire but hostilities had continued. Israel invaded Lebanon in March in pursuit of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which fired across the border in support of Tehran.
The attacks on Kuwait and in the strait are the latest to test a shaky ceasefire between the U.S., Israel and Iran, sending oil prices up nearly 2 percent, as the strait remains largely closed more than three months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran. Flights at Kuwait International Airport were suspended after an Iranian drone and missile attack damaged airport facilities and diplomatic missions, killing one person and injuring more than 60 others, Kuwaiti authorities and state media said.
Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways later resumed flights after taking safety measures, the civil aviation authority said.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said they did not fire at Kuwait's airport and blamed the destruction on U.S. interceptor missiles that failed to hit their targets, according to Iranian state media.
The U.S. military said that was not accurate, and that Iranian drones targeted the airport deliberately.
Earlier, Iranian media reported the Revolutionary Guards had attacked the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and a U.S. airbase, as well as a vessel identified as Panaya. U.S. Central Command denied its bases had been hit and said Iranian ballistic missiles failed to strike their targets in the region.
Source: Korea Times News
