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Hello and welcome to NewsAv for the BBC World Service.

We're coming to you live from London.

I'm James Menendez.

And we're going to begin today in Lebanon

and the announcement of a new ceasefire between the government there and Israel,

which has been stepping up its ground incursion in recent days.

The agreement between the two countries was brokered by the US following talks in Washington.

However, it depends on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia that's been fighting Israel in southern Lebanon

and firing rockets across the border,

stopping its attacks and pulling out of the area. Here's how some people in Beirut reacted

to news of the ceasefire this morning. They've been saying the war will end next week,

next month for many months and years.

But I am now very optimistic that God willing, in a month or two, Lebanon will go back to what it used to be.

It will become active again. Tourists will return and Lebanon will become Switzerland of the east again.

We are hoping for the best.

It depends on whether the ceasefire will guarantee a withdrawal from the occupied territories

and does not give Israel freedom of movement to strike whatever it wants, whatever it considers

a threat.

Only then can we assess whether the ceasefire is really a success or not.

We do not believe in this ceasefire. That's the first thing. The second thing is that

Israel is a sworn enemy of the Lebanese people

...