Thailand and Cambodia agree to “Immediate and unconditional cessation of fire”

Thailand and Cambodia agreed to “Immediate and unconditional cessation of the fire” after five days a battle on their border killed at least 33 people and displaced tens of thousands.

“This is a vital first step towards de -escalation and restoration of peace and security,” said Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, surrounded by his Thai and Cambodian counterparts, as he announced that the hostilities would end at midnight.

Initially, Thailand repelled his proposal to mediate, but agreed after US President Donald Trump said tariff negotiations would not continue until they were struggling.

Tensions during the centuries -old border dispute appeared in May after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a collision.

Thailand has imposed restrictions on citizens and tourists heading to Cambodia through land, while Cambodia banned some of Thailand, including fruits, electricity and internet services. Local Cambodia retail outlets report that hundreds of thousands of workers have returned from Thailand from May.

The situation escalated last week after a Thai soldier lost his leg in a mines explosion. Thailand closed some of his border crossings with Cambodia, kicked his ambassador and recalled his own.

Both sides exchanged firing early on last Thursday, each claiming that the other caused the conflict.

Many victims of the Thai country were civilians in rocket -affected villages, according to the Thailand Army. Cambodia said 13 people have been killed so far, including eight civilians.

The shells and missiles continued to land in both sides, even when peace talks were being held in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Anwar said that Malaysia and other members of the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asia or Asean countries, are on hand to help monitor the cessation of fire.

Both sides will have to agree to withdraw their armies, which are now highly reinforced, back from the border and to accept some independent monitoring to prevent more clashes.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet described him as a very good meeting that he hoped he would immediately stop the fighting. Cambodia is pushing for the end of Friday’s fire as his overhanging forces were made by Thai military.

Instant Thai Prime Minister Phumham Wechayachai spoke briefly, promising to honor the truce.

The situation on the front lines, which are accessible only to the two armies, is not yet unclear.

Thailand claims to have taken control of a number of hills held in Cambodia and maintained a sustainable artillery barrage from its much larger arsenal of heavy cannons, as well as hitting the Cambodian positions from the air.

The Thailand government did not want to join the peace talks, saying that the cessation of fire could only follow a dialogue between the two countries and the “sincere intentions” of Cambodia, which means the end of the rocket barges that killed at least 14 Thai civilians.

While Malaysia was talking to the negotiations as a lot of credit probably belongs to Washington, with President Trump. His ultimatum on Saturday night, threatening to stop all negotiations to reduce US tariffs, unless the two sides agreed to stop fighting, they almost certainly forced them to accept the termination of fire.

Both are highly dependent on exports to the United States and both face 36% export tariffs without a deal. This would put their manufacturers in a major disadvantage of those in neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, who have already concluded transactions to reduce their tariffs up to 20% or less.

But maintaining the cessation of fire will be difficult, given that now there is a deep distrust between the two armies and many powerful nationalist sentiment is stirred.

Thailand was especially injured by the sudden use of numerous rocket launchers on Thursday, which caused most civic casualties, and drastically escalated what was until then in small -scale fights between their soldiers.

The older evacuation near the Thai border, which survived bombing during the Civil War in Cambodia since the 1980s, told the BBC last week that it was the highest they had survived.

The Thai military had said on Sunday that nearly 140,000 civilians were evacuated in shelters in seven provinces.

In Cambodia, where the press is severely restricted, the pro-Created Khmer Times cites a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, who said about 135,000 people at the border were moved on Sunday.

A 75-year-old woman from Cambodia, who was evacuated to a shelter, told the BBC earlier on Monday that she was still not feeling safe because she could hear Thai drones fly over the tents.

She said she wanted to “see the war tonight.”