BEIRUT: Fighting between Hezbollah movement and a former Al Qaeda affiliate on the Syria-Lebanon border halted on Thursday after a ceasefire was reached, Lebanese media and Hezbollah outlets reported.

The ceasefire comes a week after Hezbollah launched an offensive against the jihadists in the mountainous Jurud Arsal border region.

Hezbollah’s “War Media” outlet said “a ceasefire that began at 6am is in effect on all the front in Jurud Arsal.”

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said the ceasefire was part of a deal brokered by the country’s general security agency chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim.

Under the deal, remaining fighters from the former Al Qaeda affiliate once known as Al Nusra Front will withdraw from the region.

Al Nusra Front was previously Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, before renouncing that status last year and rebranding itself Fateh al-Sham Front. “The Al Nusra fighters and their families will go to Idlib,” a province in northwestern Syria largely under the control of the jihadists, NNA said.

It said Ibrahim was expected to release a statement on the deal later on Thursday.

In a speech on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said “serious” negotiations were underway to secure the withdrawal of Al Nusra militants.

“There are two paths: the battlefield and the negotiations. Both are open,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2017