U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called for an end to further attacks after Israel launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, jeopardizing a fragile ceasefire deal aimed at ending the U.S.-Iran war.
The Israeli military confirmed the strikes, which sent smoke rising over the Lebanese capital and killed three people, according to the health ministry, with 16 others wounded. Iran responded with threats of military retaliation.
Trump took to social media to warn both sides, stating, "We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon. Let's not blow it!" The emerging agreement, brokered by Pakistan and other mediators, has been a source of deep disappointment for Israel's government, which has been largely sidelined in the negotiations.
The latest Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs mark the most serious escalation since a tenuous ceasefire took effect on April 7. Trump had pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid heavy strikes while a deal was near, but Netanyahu defied the U.S.
president. Netanyahu's office justified the strikes as a response to Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel, which the military said included three projectiles.
Trump downplayed the attack on northern Israel as "very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process."
An Associated Press photographer at the scene in Beirut reported that a five-story apartment building with shops on the ground floor was struck, with the two lowest floors suffering the most damage. Residents of the southern suburbs, many of whom had returned home after weeks of relative calm, were seen fleeing the area.
The conflict began on March 2 when Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel, two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, sparking a broader war.
Israeli troops have since pushed deeper into Lebanon than at any point in over 25 years. Iran has insisted that any ceasefire deal must address the fighting in Lebanon, though it remains unclear whether that would require an Israeli withdrawal and on what timeline.
Mediators are working to finalize the deal. Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned the U.S.
on X that "if you lack the will and ability to fulfill your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible." General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, deputy commander of Iran's Joint Command Headquarters, stated, "Without a doubt, these crimes will not go unanswered," according to the official Mizan news agency.
Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran on Sunday to finalize the agreement, according to two regional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. They expressed cautious optimism that the U.S.
and Iran were approaching a deal that could halt hostilities that have killed thousands and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has disrupted global markets. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday the deal would be signed Sunday, while Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said it could happen in the coming days.
Trump stated the Strait of Hormuz would open immediately after the signing. The deal is expected to be signed electronically, without an in-person ceremony.
Iran's government warned that internal division over the deal weakens its negotiating position. Spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told state-run IRNA news agency that Iranians must recognize that no war lasts forever.
The deal does not resolve the thorniest issues between the U.S. and Iran, including Iran's nuclear program or its billions of dollars in frozen funds.
Instead, it offers a 60-day framework for technical discussions on those issues, according to Pakistani and regional officials familiar with the negotiations. Under the deal, the U.S.
and Israel appear to have fallen short of their original goals of destroying Iran's missile and nuclear programs and ending its support for armed proxies. Trump asserted on social media that "when all is calm," the U.S.
would "downblend and destroy" the enriched uranium in Iran or in the U.S. Iran has 972 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful and has not publicly committed to giving up the enriched uranium, believed to be buried under three nuclear sites damaged by U.S. strikes last year.
Critics in Trump's Republican Party, struggling with an unpopular war ahead of the midterm elections, have criticized the emerging deal, saying it does not improve on the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew from during his first term and still describes as "bad." Trump is expected to discuss demining the Strait of Hormuz during the Group of Seven summit starting Monday.