Lebanon asks Israel for 48-hour ceasefire, foreign minister tells CNN

Lebanon is asking Israel to declare a 48-hour ceasefire, it told CNN Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib saying that “then we will know exactly who is starting what.”

Habib scored Poppy Harlow, from CNN, this Friday (20) that his country is very worried about the possibility of the war spreading across the region.

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“We really don’t want war. The government does not want war. We are talking to the various groups. But it is uncontrollable, because everything depends on what happened in Gaza”, pondered Bou Habib.

As Israel prepares for the next phase of the war with Hamas in Gaza, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces across the border in northern Israel and southern Lebanon.

Earlier on Friday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN: “The government of Lebanon, anything that happens in their sovereign territory, they are responsible and will be held responsible. It is a sovereign state. It has control over its borders.

“They have a responsibility to ensure that terrorists like Hezbollah, a terrorist army, do not launch attacks against Israel,” he added.

In response to Lerner’s comments, Foreign Minister Habib highlighted that Israel is “making the situation worse with its speech”.

“Let’s call for a ceasefire and see what happens, instead of threatening,” he highlighted.

When Harlow asked Habib whether his government has control over Hezbollah, he said: “People are interconnected here, politically and even in terms of blood. Therefore, we cannot stop them from taking revenge if the situation in Gaza actually worsens.”

“They (Hezbollah) don’t want a war. But you can’t control it. It all depends, again, on what happens in Gaza, on Israel’s invasion of Gaza,” she added.