Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet approved a temporary U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement Tuesday that will put a pause to the fighting with Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Scripps News spoke with former U.N. Ambassador and former National Security Adviser John Bolton about the agreement and its implications. Bolton said he didn't believe the agreement would cause long-lasting changes in the conflict.
"The duration of the cease-fire is 60 days, meaning that it takes the government of Israel out of the Biden administration, into the Trump administration, where they expect to have a more favorable audience," Bolton said.
"The provisions of the cease-fire agreement do allow Israel to take military action during this 60-day period if Hezbollah tries to infiltrate back into southern Lebanon, which I think is very highly likely."
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"There's some optics here, there's some American politics involved, because Netanyahu and the Israelis fear that the Biden administration may do something negative on their way out the door," Bolton told Scripps News. "I think it's a temporary accommodation and one that's really very shaky, even from the beginning."
It’s not clear if the ceasefire will affect the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which is a separate conflict.
Also in the interview, Bolton spoke about the possibility of new North American tariffs under the incoming Trump administration, as well as the national security implications of some of President-elect Trump's cabinet nominations.
Watch the full interview with Bolton in the attached video.
