DUBAI/ WASHINGTON – A ceasefire agreed between Iran and the United States in early April is very likely to end if Israeli attacks on Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon persist, Iranian state TV said on Monday, without providing further details.Earlier, the Iranian state news agency Tasnim said Tehran was halting indirect negotiations with the US after Israel ordered its troops to push deeper into Lebanon, complicating diplomatic efforts to end three months of war.
In its report, Tasnim said Iran’s negotiating team was stopping exchanging messages with Washington through mediators over attacks on Lebanon, where the US-Israeli war against Iran has reignited Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah.
The move poses a further obstacle to hopes of a swift end to the crisis, after Iran said it had attacked a US air base following weekend US strikes on Iranian military targets that put further strain on a fragile ceasefire.US President Donald Trump on Monday said he spoke with Iran-aligned Lebanese militia group Hezbollah through intermediaries and secured a pledge that it would not attack Israel.
Trump said he also spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel has agreed to pull back any troops that were preparing to attack southern Lebanon. US President Donald Trump claims “talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
He makes the announcement on Truth Social shortly after announcing a new ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah — one that came hours after Tehran reportedly threatened to bolt talks with the US if the IDF’s strikes in Lebanon did not cease.The sequence of events would appear to undercut US efforts to try to separate the war in Lebanon from its conflict with Iran. Tehran has insisted on tying the two, as it seeks to protect its Hezbollah proxy and continue influencing events in Lebanon.
US President Donald Trump indicated that Washington has brokered a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“I had a very productive call with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no troops going to Beirut, and any troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump writes on Truth Social. A military official says no Israeli troops were en route to Beirut.“Likewise — through highly placed representatives — I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — that Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,” Trump adds.
Netanyahu’s office declines to comment at this time on US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The US announcement has sparked alarm in Hebrew media and among some Israeli lawmakers who knocked Netanyahu for appearing to shelve plans to target Beirut at Washington’s behest.This followed earlier reports that the US had shown increasing openness to an Israeli escalation in Lebanon, though those reports relied on anonymous Israeli sources.
Lebanon said an Israeli strike hit near a hospital in the southern city of Tyre on Monday as the health ministry shared footage showing heavy damage to the facility.
The state-run National News Agency says a strike targeting an intersection near the Jabal Amel hospital “hit a building and the parking lot, resulting in a number of wounded.”
The health ministry shares two videos showing damage inside a hospital ward, with rubble and debris on the ground, blown-out ceilings, blood on the floor and shattered glass, while smoke could be seen billowing from a fire at what appeared to be a heavily damaged adjacent car park.
The United Nations expresses its alarm and calls for all sides to respect the ceasefire as Israel expanded its offensive into Lebanon, while negotiations to end the US-Iran war appeared in peril.
“We are deeply alarmed by the escalation in military activities across southern Lebanon and beyond,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, says. “We urge all actors to respect the cessation of hostilities and avoid further escalation.”
Following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new ceasefire in Lebanon, an Israeli source tells the Ynet news site that Israel has postponed the planned strikes on Beirut at the request of the United States, adding that Washington is advancing a ceasefire initiative and asked Israel to wait.
An Israeli official told Ynet earlier today that Israel had coordinated the planned attack with the Americans. The outlet notes the possibility that the purpose of instructing the attack was to pressure Hezbollah into agreeing to a ceasefire.
The United States bears responsibility for violations of the ceasefire with Iran and ceasefire violations committed by Israel in Lebanon, Iran’s foreign ministry says in a statement.
It says a ceasefire violation on one front is equivalent to a violation on all fronts.
Iran and Pakistani mediators have said that the US-Iran ceasefire inked in April is supposed to cover Lebanon. Israel and the US deny that is the case.
The US has sought to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, albeit one detached from the Iran conflict.
It brokered such a deal less than two weeks after the Iran ceasefire was announced, but it hasn’t really held, given that the IDF and Hezbollah have had daily exchanges of fire since.
