BRUSSELS, April 9 — The ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran should extend to Lebanon, the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said today, adding that Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah must disarm.
“Israeli actions are putting the US-Iran ceasefire under severe strain. The Iran truce should extend to Lebanon,” Kallas said in a post on X.
“Israeli strikes killed hundreds last night, making it hard to argue that such heavy-handed actions fall within self-defence,” she also said.
In MADRID, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares today accused Israel of violating international law and a newly brokered two-week ceasefire in West Asia by carrying out airstrikes on Lebanon yesterday.
Spain has emerged one of the most vocal critics among Western nations of US and Israeli actions in Iran and Lebanon, having closed its airspace to any aircraft involved in a conflict Madrid has called reckless and illegal.
“Yesterday we saw how Israel, flouting the ceasefire and in violation of international law, dropped hundreds of bombs on Lebanon,” Albares told lawmakers in the lower house.
Earlier today, Albares announced that Spain would reopen its embassy in Tehran in hopes of achieving peace in the region.
“I’ve instructed our ambassador in Tehran to return, to take up his post again and reopen our embassy, and for us to join in this effort for peace from every possible quarter, including from the Iranian capital itself,” Albares told reporters.
In LONDON today, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Israel’s pounding of Lebanon is “deeply damaging” and risks destabilising the ceasefire between the US and Iran.
“We want to see Lebanon included in the ceasefire,” she told Times Radio. “We want it extended to cover Lebanon, because otherwise that will destabilise the whole region.”
“That escalation that we saw from Israel yesterday was deeply damaging, and we want to see an end to hostilities.”
Britain, which has faced heavy criticism from US President Donald Trump for failing to provide more support for Washington’s war on Iran, has sought to help defend its allies in the Gulf and is working with other countries on ways to reopen the key Strait of Hormuz.
Asked about the strains with its key US ally, Cooper said it is possible for London to remain close to Washington while taking a different approach in West Asia, but she said some of Trump’s rhetoric, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s civilisation, has been dangerous.
“I think that the rhetoric that we’ve seen used has been completely wrong,” she told Sky News. “That sort of escalatory rhetoric can have escalatory consequences.”
In PARIS, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot today said the ceasefire agreed by Iran and the US must also cover military actions in Lebanon, adding that France condemns the “massive” Israeli strikes yesterday.
Barrot also said he expects Iran to make a series of concessions as part of peace talks due to start in Pakistan.
“Iran must give up … nuclear weapons and means to obtain them, must give up using its missiles and drones to threaten countries in the region and give up supporting groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthis (that) destabilise the region,” he said in an interview with Radio Station France Inter.
Iran must also open the traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, Barrot said.
