After nearly two months of hostilities between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the two sides have agreed a 60-day ceasefire, allowing many of the civilians who have been forced to flee the fighting in south Lebanon to return to their homes.
The terms of the deal are very similar to the situation after Israel and Hezbollah last came seriously to blows in 2006. Israeli troops are to withdraw back across the border into their own country. Hezbollah, meanwhile, will withdraw all of its fighters from the region south of the Litani river, the old “blue line” boundary which was set by the United Nations in 2000 and aimed to create a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon policed by UN peacekeepers.
But given that this has failed to keep the peace in the past, what are the prospects of it holding now? John Strawson, an expert in Middle Eastern politics at the University of East London, addresses some of the key issues.
