Australia Calls For Lebanon To Be Included In West Asia Ceasefire

CANBERRA, April 9 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong on Thursday said that the ongoing conflict in Lebanon risks jeopardising the ceasefire in West Asia, reported Xinhua.

Wong told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio that the two-week ceasefire announced by the United States and Iran should also apply to Lebanon and that Australia is calling for both Hezbollah and Israel to observe the ceasefire.

"If fighting continues in Lebanon, it risks the whole ceasefire across the region," she said.

Her comments came after Israel on Wednesday launched widespread airstrikes across Lebanon.

In a joint statement issued in the early hours of Thursday in Australia, Wong and her counterparts in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan and Sierra Leone called for an "urgent end" to hostilities in Lebanon.

The statement said that the signatory countries are deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation in Lebanon and condemn "in the strongest terms" actions that have killed peacekeepers and increased the risks faced by humanitarian personnel in southern Lebanon. 

--BERNAMA-XINHUA