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Just a day after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, a massive Israeli bombardment of Lebanon threatened to jeopardize the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran.
Iranian state media said the Islamic republic blocked the passage of two oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz after Israel launched its biggest bombardment against the Lebanese movement Hezbollah since the war began more than five weeks ago.
Tehran must allow free flow of traffic through the strategic waterway as part of a ceasefire agreement as Trump seeks to ease the global energy crisis triggered by the war.
However, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said reports of the strait closure were “false”, adding: “We have seen an increase in traffic in the strait today.”
The US and Iran were expected to hold talks in Islamabad later this week. But after Israel launched attacks on all of Lebanon, including Beirut, Iran threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire arrangement if the attacks continued. According to Lebanon’s government civil defense service, more than 250 people were killed and more than 700 were injured in the attacks.
A senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the country is “preparing to respond” to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
“An act of aggression against Hezbollah is an act of aggression against Iran,” Majid Mousavi, commander of the Guards’ Aerospace Forces, said in a post on Twitter. He said the Iranian military was “preparing to give a heavy response to the brutal crimes of the (Israeli) regime”.
In a sign of rising tensions, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of Iran’s top civilian leaders, said the basis under which the talks were to take place had been “openly and blatantly violated before the talks even began”.
Ghalibaf listed the alleged violations as the US’s insistence that Iran give up its ability to enrich uranium, the entry of a drone into Iranian airspace and the failure to enforce a two-week ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
Tehran says the Israel-Hezbollah war was included in the ceasefire agreement. But Trump told broadcaster PBS on Wednesday that Lebanon was not included in the ceasefire “because of Hezbollah.”
Adding to the confusion, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who mediated between the US and Iran, said Lebanon was included in the ceasefire arrangement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is ready to resume war against Iran “at any moment”.
“We still have goals to achieve, and we will achieve them – either through an agreement or through resumption of war. The finger is on the trigger,” he said in a recorded primetime address on Wednesday.
Egypt, which was involved in mediation with Pakistan, said Israel’s attacks on Lebanon were an attempt to drag the region into “complete chaos”.
The latest Hezbollah-Israel conflict broke out after the militant group began cross-border firing after an airstrike on Tehran killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Gulf countries, which have borne the brunt of the US and Israel’s war against Iran, also said they would continue to face Iranian missile and drone attacks as tensions rise across the region.
Iran also said it faced two attacks on Wednesday, saying a refinery in the south of the country was targeted and it shot down a drone in a separate incident.
When markets opened after the armistice was announced, US stocks rose and oil prices, which had reached their highest level in several years, fell. Brent crude fell 13 percent to $94.50 a barrel, its lowest level in nearly a month, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell 16 percent to less than $95 a barrel.
Announcing the ceasefire on Tuesday, Trump said the “long-standing problem” with Iran was “close to resolution.” He said the 10-point plan that Iran has presented to his administration is a “viable basis” for negotiations, adding that “almost all the different points of the previous dispute have been agreed upon”.
On Wednesday, Trump said he was “talking” about sanctions relief with Iran, adding that his administration would work with the regime to recover reserves of highly enriched uranium buried under the debris of nuclear facilities bombed by the US last June.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday described the ceasefire as a “tremendous victory” for Washington, while warning that the military “stands ready” to ensure compliance with the Iran deal.
Iran, which has described the ceasefire as a US capitulation, also indicated it was ready to resume conflict. After Israel stepped up its attacks on Hezbollah, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the republic was serious about keeping its “finger on the trigger.”
Iranian attacks and threats have slowed the flow of shipping through the strait as insurance premiums have increased and ships avoid using the choke point.
Tehran indicated it would demand that shipping companies pay tolls in cryptocurrencies for oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, as it seeks to maintain control over the route through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas typically transits.
