Israel’s military launched its most powerful attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday, resulting in hundreds of casualties as Iran accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump announced just 24 hours prior.
A significant portion of the two-week ceasefire agreement reached Tuesday night, just hours before Trump’s deadline to respond to his threat to annihilate a “whole civilization” if Iran didn’t make peace, required Iran to reopen the crucial passage for trade and oil to international shipping before peace talks can continue.
Following the strikes, Iran said it had closed the strait, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire by launching a major attack on Lebanon, Iran’s Far News agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported.
“The Iran-U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose — ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, said in a social media post. “The world sees massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
Araghchi attached a social media post from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, highlighting a section, saying, Iran and the United States “have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also weighed in after talking to both Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and said the ceasefire must include Lebanon.
“I expressed my hope that the ceasefire will be fully respected by each of the belligerents, across all areas of confrontation, including in Lebanon,” he wrote in a post on X. “This is a necessary condition for the ceasefire to be credible and lasting.”
Hezbollah announced in a statement that it had ceased firing on northern Israel following the implementation of the ceasefire between Iran, the United States, and Israel.
In a phone call with PBS News after a morning Pentagon briefing, Trump stated that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire deal “due to Hezbollah” — but assured that the Lebanon issue “would be addressed.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also said during a press briefing on Wednesday: “Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire. That has been relayed to all parties involved in the ceasefire.”
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also accused the United States of violating the proposed framework of the ceasefire outlined in Iran’s 10-point peace proposal.
Ghalibaf specifically accused the U.S. of violating three of its proposals, including Israel’s attack on Lebanon on Wednesday, Iran’s airspace with an “intruding drone,” and Iran’s right to enrich uranium.
“The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” Ghalibaf said in a statement.
