Bassil hails 'sovereign' truce, calls for distancing Lebanon from conflicts

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil congratulated the Lebanese for a ceasefire that came into effect on Wednesday morning.

If it holds, the ceasefire would bring an end to nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated in mid-September into all-out war.

Bassil called the ceasefire - an initial two-month halt to fighting - a "cessation of hostilities" that will pave the way for a final ceasefire "under the umbrella of sovereignty."

Israeli forces remained in their positions Wednesday hours after the ceasefire took place. They will only gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon during the 60-day period laid out in the ceasefire agreement.

Bassil called on those displaced by Israel's war to return home, also urging the swift election of a new consensual president.

"The return of our people to their homes is necessary," he said, adding that "the priority now is to elect a consensual president and form a government to begin reform and reconstruction, develop a defense strategy led by the state, and to keep Lebanon away from conflicts and axes in order to avoid the renewal of war."