Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Thursday that if fighting in Lebanon continued, it would ‘risk the whole ceasefire across the region’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPView image in fullscreenAustralia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Thursday that if fighting in Lebanon continued, it would ‘risk the whole ceasefire across the region’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP‘Deeply concerned’ Australia says Lebanon should be included in Middle East ceasefireJoint statement calling for aid worker protections also signed by Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan, Sierra Leone and the UK
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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.
Read moreIn 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.”
