Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that an agreement on implementing a ceasefire announced in Washington after talks with Israel was the “last chance” to reach a comprehensive truce.

“The results of the fourth round of negotiations, and the statement issued from it, which included very important points in Lebanon’s favor, represent the last chance to enter into a final, comprehensive ceasefire,” Aoun said, according to a statement from his office. “Each party bears responsibility” if it fails to respond positively, he added.

Aoun said Lebanon would inform the United States of its position “as soon as responses are received from the concerned internal parties, particularly Hezbollah”. He added that the United States will determine the ceasefire’s start date and “President Donald Trump will be the direct guarantor of its implementation.”

In a related development, a UN peacekeeper killed in southern Lebanon was Serbian, the country’s Defense Ministry confirmed on Thursday, specifying that he died from injuries caused by a missile strike on the UN base.

“Senior Sergeant Milovan Jovanovic was given emergency medical care at a hospital inside the base after being wounded and then transported by helicopter to the University Medical Center in Beirut, where he died,” the statement said.

Iran’s supreme leader said Thursday that the United States and Israel had been dealt a “decisive blow” in the Middle East war, after the government reported “no tangible progress” in negotiations on ending the conflict.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s message, read out by a prayer leader at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic republic’s founder, came after the US House of Representatives passed a resolution seeking to halt American military action in Iran.

Similarly, the head of the Quds Force, the foreign arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, said that Israel must pull back from its current front lines in Lebanon, where it is fighting Tehran’s ally Hezbollah.

“Supporting the resistance in Lebanon is the duty of all of us, and removing Israel from the region is an attainable goal for Muslims,” Esmail Qaani said in a post on a domestic social media platform. “The minimum demand of the resistance is the withdrawal of the usurping regime (Israel) to the position it held before the start of the 40-day war.” (AFP)