Much Uncertainty Over Ceasefire

About an hour and a half before the 8 pm deadline he had set, US President Donald Trump posted on social media that the US and Iran were `very far along’ with a definitive peace agreement, so he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire to allow negotiations to continue.

That prompted many reporters, including Chris Mitchell of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) to post early analysis of the agreement and reactions from the different parties involved.

His comments indicated that there was the usual uncertainty in the first hours of any ceasefire due to continued fighting; with missile alerts reported in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait despite the ceasefire.

As time went on through the morning of Wednesday 8th April, it became clear that a major point of uncertainty involved the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that the ceasefire did not apply to that conflict, contradicting statements by Pakistani officials who were involved in the negotiations.

By lunchtime in the Middle East, Kuwait said its air defences were still having to intercept a wave of Iranian drones targeting vital oil facilities, power stations and water desalination plants. And at the same time the United Arab Emirates said its air defences were engaging missile and drone attacks coming from Iran.

So, by midday BST there was much uncertainty about the effectiveness of this ceasefire agreement.