Australia says Lebanon must be included in the Middle East ceasefire and has led a group of other countries in expressing deep concern about “the worsening humanitarian situation and displacement crisis in Lebanon”.
Overnight, Israel carried out its largest attack on Lebanon since its war with Hezbollah began, killing at least 254 people and wounding 837, an assault that prompted Iranian officials to warn Tehran could withdraw from the ceasefire agreed with the US this week.
In the statement, released in the early hours of Thursday, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, alongside counterparts from Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan, Sierra Leone and the UK, said: “Attacks that threaten the safety and security of humanitarian personnel must stop. International humanitarian law must be upheld by all parties to the conflict in all circumstances.”
“We condemn in the strongest terms actions that have killed UN peacekeepers and significantly increased the risks faced by humanitarian personnel in southern Lebanon.”
The office of Israel’s prime minister said the two-week ceasefire deal did not include Lebanon, contrary to a statement made by mediator Pakistan – while Trump, after initially remaining silent, said Lebanon was “a separate skirmish” and not part of the deal.
Speaking to ABC’s RN Breakfast on Thursday about the new joint statement, Wong said Australia had “called for the ceasefire to apply to Lebanon and for both Hezbollah and Israel to observe the ceasefire”.
If fighting continued in Lebanon, she said, “it risks the whole ceasefire across the region”.
“So we called for that last night. We’ve been joined overnight by the G7 and other countries saying the same thing, and we continue to assert that.”
Asked if she had been in touch with her Israeli counterpart or if the ambassador here had presented that point of view from Australia, Wong replied: “Not in the last 12 hours, but I’ve said that publicly, and there’s a very pragmatic reason for that …
“We want the ceasefire to hold. We know it’s fragile. We know what it means for the world, and we know what it means for Australians at the petrol bowser.”
The shadow defence minister, James Paterson, said the Coalition was concerned about the reports of mass civilian deaths in Lebanon, but that
he sided with the US and Israel’s position that Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire deal.
“The United States is our closest and most important military ally and they have publicly said that the ceasefire did not include Lebanon,” he told RN Breakfast.
“Against their claims are the claims of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which not only sponsored terrorist attacks against Australia but has murdered tens of thousands of their own citizens in the last few months alone, has an illegal nuclear weapons program and sponsors other terrorist organisations around the world including Hezbollah and Hamas.
“So if asked to take the side of either the United States or the Islamic Republic of Iran regime, it’s an easy choice for me.”
