A man looks out from his parents' apartment, which was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut, April 9.Chris McGrath/Getty Images
In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbours.
Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Mr. Netanyahu later stressed that there was no ceasefire between them. In a video statement, he said Israel will keep striking Hezbollah until security is restored in northern Israel.
There was no immediate response from Lebanon. But Israel-Lebanon negotiations were expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the matter.
The prospect of talks appeared to bolster the tentative ceasefire in the Iran war that has staggered under the weight of Israel’s bombardment of Beirut, Tehran’s continued chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and uncertainty over whether talks can find common ground.
However later Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the ceasefire, writing on his social media platform: “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonourable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz.”
“That is not the agreement we have!” Mr. Trump wrote.
Meanwhile, Kuwait accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting it on Thursday despite the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, as Saudi Arabia said recent attacks damaged a key pipeline in the kingdom. The accusation from Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry, carried by the state-run KUNA news agency, put new pressure on the ceasefire ahead of planned talks between the U.S. and Iran.
A Lebanese civil defense worker, right, stands with a resident at the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli air strike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon on Thursday.Hassan Ammar/The Associated Press
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard denied launching attacks on Persian Gulf states on Thursday after Kuwait’s announcement.
Such an assault would mirror the continuing pressure campaign Tehran is waging on the U.S. and its allies, particularly as it tries to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Mr. Netanyahu’s authorization of negotiations with Lebanon comes amid disagreement over whether the ceasefire deal included a pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and a day after Israel pounded Beirut with air strikes, the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began Feb. 28.
Israel has fought multiple wars and launched several major invasions of Lebanon over the years, most recently sending in troops last month in response to Hezbollah fire on Israel’s northern border communities.
The Associated Press
The launch of direct peace talks is a significant achievement, though reaching an agreement will be difficult after decades of hostilities, Hezbollah’s continued presence and long-standing disagreements over the countries’ shared land border.
The talks in Washington are expected to be handled on the American side by the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, and on the Israeli side by the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, according to the person familiar with the planning.
It was not immediately clear who would represent Lebanon. The timing and location of the talks was first reported by Axios.
After declaring victory with the ceasefire announcement, both Iran and the U.S. have appeared to apply pressure on each other. Semiofficial news agencies in Iran suggested forces have mined the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil that Tehran has closed. Mr. Trump warned that U.S. forces would hit Iran harder than before if it did not fulfill the agreement.
Mr. Trump expressed concern again Thursday over reports that Iran’s military was charging tolls on tankers seeking to pass through the strait. “They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!” he wrote on social media.
Questions also remained over what will happen to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium at the heart of tensions, how and when normal traffic will resume through the strait, and what happens to Iran’s ability to launch future missile attacks and support armed proxies in the region.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a message on Telegram that Iran’s decision to accept a ceasefire “is not a sign of weakness but a way to solidify Iran’s proud victories.”
Despite disputes over the ceasefire, it appears to have halted weeks of missile and drone attacks by Iran on its Gulf Arab neighbours and Israel, with no new launches reported Thursday. There were no reports of strikes by the U.S. or Israel targeting Iran.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned in a social media post Thursday that continued Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon would bring “explicit costs and STRONG responses.”
Lebanese civilians described the 'very terrifying' moments when Israeli air strikes pounded the capital city.
Reuters
Mr. Qalibaf has been discussed as a possible negotiator who could meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance this weekend in Islamabad. The White House has said Mr. Vance would lead the delegation for talks starting Saturday.
Iran had said Israel’s ongoing attacks on Hezbollah were violating the ceasefire agreement. Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump have said they were not.
Mr. Trump said Thursday that he has asked Mr. Netanyahu to dial back the strikes in Lebanon.
Analysis: The talks in Islamabad will determine far more than the direction of the war in Iran
Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 300 people were killed and more than 1,100 wounded Wednesday by Israeli strikes on central Beirut and other areas of Lebanon that Israel said targeted Hezbollah, which joined the war in support of Tehran.
Early Friday morning, Israel’s military said it struck approximately 10 launchers in Lebanon that had fired rockets toward northern Israel on Thursday.
Israel also said Thursday it killed Ali Yusuf Harshi, an aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem. Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For many civilians in the Middle East, missile attacks come without shelter or warning
Semiofficial news agencies in Iran published a chart Thursday suggesting the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war – a message that may be intended to pressure the U.S.
The chart, released by the ISNA news agency and Tasnim, showed a large circle marked “danger zone” in Farsi over the route ships take through the strait, through which 20 per cent of all traded oil and natural gas once passed.
Only a trickle of ships have transited since the war began after several were attacked, and Iran threatened to hit any that it deemed connected to the U.S. or Israel. Ships appeared to continue to avoid the strait even after the ceasefire.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told the BBC that his country will allow ships to pass through the strait in accordance with “international norms and international law” once the U.S. ends its “aggression” in the Middle East and Israel stops attacking Lebanon.
The head of the United Arab Emirates’ major oil company, Sultan al-Jaber, said some 230 ships loaded with oil were waiting to get through the strait and must be allowed “to navigate this corridor without condition.”
The strait’s de facto closure has caused oil prices to skyrocket – affecting the cost of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East. The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $98 Thursday, up about 35 per cent since the war began.
The fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs – which the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war – was unclear. The U.S. insists Iran must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants to remove Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build them. Iran insists its program is peaceful.
Mr. Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. would work with Iran to remove the uranium, buried in last year’s U.S. and Israeli strikes, though Iran did not confirm that. In one version of the ceasefire deal that Iran published, it said it would be allowed to continue enrichment.
The chief of Iran’s nuclear agency, Mohammad Eslami, said Thursday that protecting Tehran’s right to enrich uranium is “necessary” for any ceasefire talks.