Trump says Israel and Lebanon agree to extend ceasefire by 3 weeks

US President Donald Trump announced a three-week extension of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon shortly after presiding over the second round of ambassador-level talks between the two countries at the White House. In a Truth Social post published immediately after the meeting ended, Trump said he also planned to host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House “in the near future.” “The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Trump wrote, adding that the White House meeting went “very well.”
Trump also said that Israel reserves the right to strike Lebanese targets in self-defense. “Israel is going to have to defend itself if they are shot at… but they’re going to do it carefully, and they’ll be surgical,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office after presiding over the second round of ambassador-level negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.He said,Iran will have to stop funding Hezbollah in order to secure a permanent ceasefire deal with the US.
However, the Iran-backed terror group still holds significant sway in Lebanon, where roughly one-third of the population is Shiite. Previous attempts by the government to disarm Hezbollah have proven wildly unsuccessful as it continued to fire repeatedly at northern Israel.