00:00The U.S. says Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a ceasefire if Hezbollah also stops fighting.
00:06There was no immediate indication whether Hezbollah had accepted the terms of the deal.
00:11Here's the Israeli ambassador to the United States.
00:15We are no longer going into a pattern of negotiating ceasefires where Israel leaves,
00:22Hezbollah comes back, and we go back to the same nonsense.
00:26This has stopped. Everybody understands that it has to stop.
00:30And we are full of hope that this time it will succeed.
00:38The deal addresses a key sticking point as the Trump administration tries to keep peace talks with Iran on track.
00:45That is, as political opposition intensifies at home,
00:49with the Republican-led U.S. House voting to stop the war breaking with the president.
00:54For more, we're joined by Stuart Livingstone-Wallace, our executive editor for MENA and Russia.
01:00Stuart, what do we know at this point? Is there a deal? Is there no deal?
01:04What does the latest round of talks between Israel and Lebanon mean?
01:08So basically, yes, there is a deal, but it's between the government of Lebanon and the government of Israel.
01:13And so at the moment, it doesn't include the most important non-state actor, which is obviously Hezbollah.
01:18We've not heard from them.
01:19Maybe we'll hear something from them this afternoon, then we'll get a flavour of what exactly they're prepared to do.
01:24But it does seem a stretch to say we have a ceasefire when one of the key parties involved in
01:30the fighting has yet to say anything.
01:32And as you know, historically, Hezbollah has been reluctant to engage in that sort of thing.
01:36So we'll see. I mean, again, as the ambassador said, we're all hopeful, but we'll see.
01:42So Hezbollah has been reluctant. It hasn't taken an active part in those discussions.
01:47But the discussions that did happen do address one sticking point for Iran.
01:52So what does that in turn mean for the broader peace deal between or the interim draft deal between Iran
01:59and the United States?
02:00Yeah, I mean, so it's clear Iran has set it as a red line, but it's not just Lebanon, right?
02:03It's also going to be Gaza, one would presume. And then there's a whole raft of other issues.
02:08As you know, the so-called ceasefire with Iran is already pretty fragile.
02:13We've had these sort of sporadic fighting since then.
02:16Again, if this ceasefire in Lebanon is a real thing and it can hold, that only has to be a
02:21positive for the rest.
02:21It's clear there's a great deal of appetite, particularly from the U.S., to get this done.
02:25I think it's arguably also really important for the global economy and just about everyone out there
02:30because the domino effect of Hormuz has been so vast.
02:33And look, President Trump is facing more and more pressure back at home, right?
02:38We reported on the fact that both the House and the Senate are now behind a resolution that would have
02:44him rethink the war.
02:46What is happening there? What more pressures are mounting in the United States against the president?
02:51Yes, I mean, I think it's a reflection of how bad things have got politically around this issue.
02:55So in terms of the practicalities, we would still need a Senate vote.
02:59Trump could veto it. That would then require a two-thirds majority to overturn the veto.
03:03So I don't think anyone is anticipating this is going to be a short-run thing or even that we'll
03:07get that far.
03:08But the optics of Republicans crossing the House, voting with the Democrats against this is, I think, hugely important.
03:17I think it's a reminder you've got the midterms coming up and in terms of the gasoline prices in particular,
03:22but also diesel prices and other things, the inflationary effect on the U.S. consumer is now front of mind
03:27for the U.S. politicians.
03:28So I think, in effect, it's a warning of Trump, get this done, get this completed.
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