French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that he urged his US and Iranian counterparts, Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian, to include Lebanon in the ceasefire reached with Iran.

"I expressed my hope that the ceasefire will be fully respected by each of the belligerents, across all areas of confrontation, including in Lebanon," Macron wrote on X after speaking with both leaders.

These strikes "pose a direct threat to the sustainability of the ceasefire that has just been reached. Lebanon must be fully covered by it," Macron noted.

Macron is the first Western leader to have spoken with the Iranian president since the announcement of the ceasefire.

Israel announced on Wednesday it did not consider Lebanon covered by the Iran-US truce announced overnight, contradicting comments made by Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif - a key intermediary in ceasefire talks.

So far, the Israeli strike on Wednesday across Lebanon has killed at least 254 people and injured 1,165 others, with densely populated neighbourhoods in the capital, Beirut, among the hardest hit, according to the latest data provided by the Lebanese Civil Defense.

Macron said France would "play its full part, in close coordination with its partners" in the region. (Agencies)



Edited by Azam Khan