WASHINGTON, (AP):- U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 10-day pause in fighting between Israel and Lebanon starting on Thursday at 5 p.m. ET, following “excellent” conversations he had with each nation’s leader. The truce follows more than a month of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Nearly 2,200 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli air strikes.
Trump also said he’s inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House for the leaders’ first direct talks in over 30 years. Aoun had refused to speak with Netanyahu hours earlier. Israel’s and Lebanon’s respective ambassadors to the U.S. held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades earlier this week.
Pakistan’s army chief met with Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday in a bid to extend the ceasefire which paused almost seven weeks of war between Israel, the U.S. and Iran that have killed thousands of people and upended global markets by disrupting the flow of oil. Uncertainty remains whether the frantic diplomacy can lead to a deal. A second round of US-Iran talks hasn’t been scheduled yet, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on Wednesday that the U.S. is preparing to ramp up economic pain on Iran by levying secondary sanctions on financial institutions that do business with the Middle Eastern nation. Bessent called the measure the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign.