Lebanon has become a flashpoint in President Trump’s efforts to end the conflict Iran waswith the US and Israel publicly at odds with Iran and Pakistan over whether the country to Israel’s north would be included in the two-week deadline A ceasefire was announced earlier this week.
Conflicting viewpoints on the terms of the deal – and Iran’s claims of ceasefire violations by the US and Israel – are straining the fragile ceasefire, as Israel continues to launch attacks in Lebanon and Iran warns of “explicit costs and strong responses” to violations of the deal.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister spoke of widespread attacks Israel carried out an attack in Lebanon on Wednesday were “a serious violation” of the ceasefire agreement, adding that the US must choose “between war and ceasefire” – you can’t have both at the same time.
“You cannot ask for a ceasefire and then accept terms and conditions, accept areas to which the ceasefire will be applied and call Lebanon, exactly Lebanon, and then your ally just starts a massacre,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said told the BBCthe CBS News affiliate network.
Khatibzadeh said the US-Iran agreement provides for a cessation of hostilities between both countries and their allies, including in Lebanon.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Thursday on X that Lebanon and other allies of Iran “form an inseparable part of the ceasefire,” calling it “Point 1” of Iran’s 10-point proposal underlying the Washington-Tehran deal, with “no room for denial and regression.”
Qalibaf noted that the Pakistani leader who negotiated the ceasefire agreement also “emphasized the Lebanon issue.” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Tuesday night on XAnnouncing the deal, he said that Iran, the United States and “their allies” “everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere, had agreed to an immediate ceasefire effective immediately.”
What the USA and Israel say
The White House and the Israeli government say Lebanon was never part of the ceasefire agreement.
President Trump told PBS News Hour correspondent Elizabeth Landers on Wednesday that continuing Israel’s attacks in Lebanon “is part of the deal – everyone knows that. That’s a separate battle.”
said Vice President JD Vance The US never promised that Lebanon would be included in the ceasefire agreement, although Iran claimed it would. He spoke of a “well-founded misunderstanding” between the parties.
Israel has also said the ceasefire agreement does not extend to the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the Israeli military said it struck 100 alleged Hezbollah targets across the country in just 10 minutes on Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 203 people were killed and the prime minister said there were significant civilian casualties. Israel’s defense minister said Thursday that “200 terrorists” had been killed during the strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Wednesday that Iran entered the ceasefire negotiations “battered and weaker than ever” and that it had waived all of its preconditions, including a ceasefire in Lebanon.
“I have insisted that the temporary ceasefire with Iran does not include Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said. “And we continue to use force against them.”
Asked by the BBC on Thursday whether Iran would tell Hezbollah to stop firing rockets at Israel, Khatibzadeh said: “It is very clear that Hezbollah is (a) purely Lebanese freedom movement.”
He did not deny that Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers help train and arm Hezbollah fighters, but said: “It is not true that they are acting on our behalf.”
He also said that despite Israeli attacks in Lebanon, Iran remained “very focused on reaching an agreement.”
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict
Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been trading blows since shortly after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered the terrorist attack War in Gaza. Like its much smaller, Iran-backed ally Hamas, Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization by the governments of the United States and Israel for nearly two decades. The European Union also considers Hezbollah’s armed wing a terrorist group.
Hezbollah was founded in 1982 as a Shiite Muslim political and military force with support from Iran and Syria following an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Since then, it has functioned as a political party within the Lebanese government, but also outside it, serving its Shiite supporters and maintaining its own paramilitary force.
After Israel began its war in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 attack, Hezbollah began regular rocket attacks on northern Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinian people, it said.
Since then, Israel has retaliated with extensive attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut. Lebanese officials say at least a million people have been displaced by the Israeli attack. In 2024, Israel killed Hezbollah’s long-time leader, Hassan Nasrallah with a strike in Beirut.
Following the October 7 attack, Israeli residents in northern Israeli communities near the Lebanese border were also forced to flee their homes for safety for an extended period due to Hezbollah rocket attacks. Netanyahu and members of his Cabinet have repeatedly stated that Israel will continue its operations in Lebanon until all Israeli residents can safely return to their homes.
“Wonderful residents of the north, we are determined to return security to you,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
The Strait of Hormuz
Control of shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains another key issue complicating the US-Iran ceasefire. Iran has not relaxed its grip on the vital waterway, through which about 20% of the world’s oil supply was transported by tankers before the Iran war began.
“In any case, we will provide security for safe passage, and that will happen after the United States actually withdraws this aggression,” Iranian Khatibzadeh told the BBC on Thursday across the strait.
He said Iran will establish a “protocol that will ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz from now on” in conjunction with Oman “and of course with the international community.”
The strait is a geographical bottleneck for maritime traffic through which all goods from the Persian Gulf must pass to reach the Arabian Sea and the lucrative markets of Asia beyond. It borders Iran to the north and Oman to the south.
Bedirhan Demirel/Anadolu via Getty
“I think we have shown everyone that energy security is important for Iran, it is important for these waters in the Persian Gulf, and we will abide by international norms and international law… If safe passage means a new protocol that will forever ensure that these waters will be peaceful, then that’s fine,” but that security should be two-sided, Khatibzadeh said.
The diplomat said Iran has “many doubts” about the prospects for a final peace deal with the United States, suggesting Tehran believes Washington could only exhaust diplomatic channels but plan to return to military force or “dictate and not compromise.”
President Trump has said he expects Iran to honor what he believes are agreed terms for a ceasefire ahead of planned negotiations this weekend, warning that if it does not he will order large-scale attacks on the country.
