A ‘senior US official’ cited by Reuters says that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a ceasefire from 4 pm local time, which is just minutes from now.
Oil prices gave up a 50 cent gain and turned negative on the headline. That’s now extended to being down 64 cents to $75.96.
Earlier today, four Israeli soldiers were killed in combat and two days ago 5 were injured so this comes as something of a surprise as some of the hawks in Israel are calling for escalation.Israel responded with airstrikes that killed at least 18 people.
The announcement has trimmed the selling in S&P 500 futures as well. They were down 30 points prior to the news but have recovered to down only 11 points, or 0.16%.
Earlier, a Hezbollah official told Reuters that Iran had informed that talks with the USA couldn’t continue until a ceasefire was implemented. What’s problematic here is that this announcement isn’t from anyone in Israel. That’s something to wait on now.
Update: Two Hezbollah sources have told Reuters that they’ve implemented the ceasefire. An Israeli military spokesman says that troops on the ground in Lebanon have the freedom to act against threats. I think the problem there is that Israeli soldiers are still in Lebanon and that’s not what Iran or Hezbollah want. We will see if there is some middle ground but obviously this is good news.
Update 2: The Israeli military spokesman says Israel will stay in its ‘buffer zone’ in Lebanon as long as Israeli citizens are under Hezbollah threat. Says “we are keeping our forces in Southern Lebanon” and that “if Hezbollah does not attack us, then we are not in war time”.
That’s indeterminate so we will try to see what it means. It’s understandable in any case but we will see if Iran and Hezbollah see it that way.
Update 3: Axios reports that “Bibi agreed 100% to a renewed ceasefire in Lebanon” citing a White House official. Axios notes that Netanyahu and his deputy spokesman Omer Mansour do not confirm are maintaining silence.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.