Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend their fragile ceasefire by three weeks even as U.S. efforts to secure a broader peace deal with Iran remain stuck.
President Donald Trump announced the extension in Washington on Thursday after meeting the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors, saying he believed “there’s a very good chance of having peace” and calling it “an easy one” to achieve, despite recent Israeli strikes in Lebanon and renewed rocket fire from Iran backed Hezbollah. The initial truce between Israel and Lebanon had been due to expire on Sunday.
At the same time, Trump signalled he is in no hurry to end the wider war with Iran, warning that “the clock is ticking” for Tehran as a third U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, arrived in the Middle East to join two other carriers already operating in regional waters.
Iranian media reported explosions over Tehran for the first time since the Middle East ceasefire took effect two weeks ago, with state outlets citing air defence systems firing at “hostile targets” in the capital. An Israeli security source told AFP that Israel was not currently striking Iran.
Prospects for renewed peace talks in Pakistan remain uncertain. No delegations have yet returned to Islamabad, where heavy security has been in place for days in anticipation of negotiations aimed at defusing the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the ceasefire, both the U.S. and Iran have shifted their focus to the strait, through which about one fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports normally pass. Iran has effectively shut the waterway to most traffic in retaliation for the war, while the U.S. Navy is enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports and redirecting ships at sea.
Trump, who has ruled out using a nuclear weapon against Iran, earlier ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill” any boats caught laying sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command says its forces have so far redirected 33 vessels since the start of the blockade and recently boarded the stateless tanker M/T Majestic X in the Indian Ocean, accusing it of transporting sanctioned Iranian oil.
Iran, for its part, says it has begun collecting tolls from ships seeking to transit Hormuz and insists it will keep the strait largely closed as long as the U.S. blockade continues. Deputy parliament speaker Hamidreza Hajibabaei said Tehran had received its first revenue from the toll system.
In a show of unity, Iran’s president, parliament speaker and chief justice posted identical messages on social media declaring “one God, one nation, one leader, and one path,” dismissing foreign reports that supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei was seriously wounded in an earlier strike.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel is awaiting a “green light” from Washington to “complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty” and “return Iran to the Dark Age and the Stone Age,” comments likely to further inflame tensions.
Trump told the New York Post that talks with Iran could resume in Pakistan within “two to three days,” but no date has been fixed and no teams are currently en route. European leaders are due to meet counterparts from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan on Friday for what an EU official called “intensive dialogue” as the region and global markets grapple with the continued closure of Hormuz.
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