Firefighters gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon on Wednesday.Hussein Malla/The Associated Press
A ceasefire deal to pause the war in Iran appeared to hang by a thread Wednesday after the Islamic Republic closed the Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The White House demanded that the channel be reopened and sought to keep peace talks on track.
The U.S. and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the agreement, and world leaders expressed relief, even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries. At the same time, Israel intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, hitting several commercial and residential areas in Beirut without warning. At least 112 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in one of the deadliest days in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
The fresh violence threatened to scuttle what U.S. Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
Oil prices tumble after Iran, U.S. and Israel agree to ceasefire
The Iranian parliament speaker said planned talks with the U.S. to seek a permanent halt to hostilities were “unreasonable” because Washington broke three of Tehran’s 10 conditions for an end to the fighting. In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf objected to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, an alleged drone incursion into Iranian airspace after the ceasefire went into effect and the U.S. assertion that it will not accept any Iranian enrichment capabilities in a final agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire agreement with the U.S. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon.
“The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,” he said in a post on X. “The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed 182 people on Wednesday, the highest single-day death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the closing reported in Iranian state media was “completely unacceptable.” She repeated President Donald Trump’s “expectation and demand” that the strait be reopened.
Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said American and Israeli forces had achieved a “capital V military victory” and that the Iranian military no longer posed a significant threat to U.S. forces or the region. The Iranian military said the country forced Israel and the U.S. to accept its “proposed conditions and surrender.”
Much about the agreement was unclear as the sides presented vastly different visions of the terms.
Iran said the deal would allow it to formalize its new practice of charging ships passing through the strait, a crucial transit lane for oil. But the details were not clear, nor was it known whether vessels would feel safe using the channel or whether ship traffic had resumed. It also was unclear whether any other country agreed to this condition. The White House said Trump is opposed to tolls for ship passage through the strait.
Only 11 vessels moved through the strait Wednesday, roughly the same as in prior days, according to Windward, a maritime intelligence firm. Iran was requiring shippers to pay tolls of up to US$1 a barrel for outbound oil, it said. The largest supertankers carry up to three million barrels of crude.
The fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs – the elimination of which were major objectives for the U.S. and Israel in going to war – also remained unclear. Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran to remove buried enriched uranium, though Iran did not confirm that.
Fighting continues as Israel says U.S.-Iran ceasefire doesn’t apply to Lebanon
Trump initially said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point plan that could help end the war the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28. But when a version in Farsi emerged that indicated Iran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium – which is key to building a nuclear weapon – Trump called it fraudulent without elaborating.
Vance later said the deal was being misrepresented within Iran, though he did not offer details.
Leavitt said Iran’s original, 10-point plan was “fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded.” But a new, 15-point plan Iran presented Tuesday could now “align with our own” proposal for peace, she said.
The White House also said Vance would lead the American negotiating team in talks in Pakistan aimed at finding a permanent end to the war. Pakistan said the talks could begin in Islamabad as soon as Friday.
Iranians hold national flags beneath a large billboard reading 'The Strait of Hormuz remains closed' as people gather in Tehran's Revolution Square.ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images
Iran’s demands for ending the war include a withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from the region, the lifting of sanctions and the release of its frozen assets.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’s personal envoy arrived in Iran for talks on “the way forward.”
Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Israel will continue to “utilize every operational opportunity” to strike Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets within 10 minutes Wednesday across Lebanon, the largest wave of strikes since March 1.
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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the Israeli attacks as “barbaric.” Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Israel of “persistently seeking to sabotage” the Iran ceasefire deal.
Hezbollah has not confirmed if it will abide by the ceasefire, though the group has said it was open to giving mediators a chance to secure an agreement. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the group would not stop firing at Israel unless Israel agreed to do the same.
A man walks past an anti-U.S. and anti-Israel mural in Tehran.ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images
Iranian attacks and threats deterred many commercial ships from using the strait, through which 20 per cent of all traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime. That roiled the world economy and raised the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.
The ceasefire may formalize a system of charging fees in the strait that Iran instituted – and give it a new source of revenue.
The plan allows for both Iran and Oman to charge ships, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations they were directly involved in. The official said Iran would use the money it raised for reconstruction.
That would upend decades of precedent treating the strait as an international waterway that was free to transit and will likely not be acceptable to the Gulf Arab states, which also need to rebuild after repeated Iranian attacks targeting their oil fields.
Analysis: The U.S.-Iran ceasefire, full of uncertainty, brings relief to both sides
U.S.-Israeli strikes have battered Iran and its leadership, but they have not entirely eliminated the threats posed by Tehran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missiles or its support for regional proxies, like Hezbollah. The U.S. and Israel said addressing those threats was a key justification for going to war.
Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran to “dig up and remove” enriched uranium that was buried under joint U.S-Israeli strikes in June. He added that none of the material had been touched since. There was no confirmation from Iran.
Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing Wednesday that the U.S. would do “something like” last June’s joint strikes with Israel on Iranian nuclear sites if the country refuses to surrender its enriched uranium voluntarily.
Netanyahu warned in a televised address that his country was “ready to return to fighting at any time. Our finger is on the trigger.”
Tehran insisted for years that its nuclear program was peaceful, although it enriched uranium up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against U.S. military action in Iran in the Manhattan borough of New York City on Tuesday.CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images
Shortly after the ceasefire announcement, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all issued warnings about incoming missiles from Iran. That fire stopped for a time, then hostilities appeared to restart.
An oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island came under attack, according to Iranian state television.
A short time later, the United Arab Emirates’ air defences fired at an incoming Iranian missile barrage. Kuwait said three power and water desalination plants were badly damaged after 28 Iranian drones were launched at the country. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted nine drones.
The damage so far to Iran’s power plants, bridges and rail lines
More than 1,900 people had been killed in Iran as of late March, but the government has not updated the war’s toll for days.
In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people have been killed, and one million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will work with allies to help get traffic moving in the Strait of Hormuz. But he says any peace plan or ceasefire must also include Lebanon.
The Canadian Press
Carney, European leaders welcome ceasefire in joint statement
Prime Minister Mark Carney and nine European leaders issued a joint statement on Wednesday, welcoming the reported two-week ceasefire.
Speaking to reporters on his way into his office in Ottawa Wednesday, Carney said it was a “good day.”
“I think we should recognize the positive developments of the last few hours,” Carney said, thanking Trump and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, along with Iranian leaders.
“Canada joins our allies … in supporting these efforts, and that will include efforts to support the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which is important for re-establishing stability, lowering prices in commodities, prices at the pump even here in Canada, price of fertilizer for farmers, price of aluminum for manufacturers and others.”
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Carney said there is still much more to do to address “tricky issues” and said peace in the Middle East must include peace in Lebanon.
The statement from Carney and European leaders encouraged “quick progress toward a substantive negotiated settlement.”
“This will be crucial to protect the civilian population of Iran and ensure security in the region. It can avert a severe global energy crisis,” the statement said.
“We support these diplomatic efforts. To this end, we are in close contact with the United States and other partners.”
With a report from The Canadian Press