Iran halts talks with mediators over Israel's Lebanon offensive, while US-Iran tensions escalate with threats to block Strait of Hormuz and open new fronts. Trump claims progress but Iran insists on Lebanon ceasefire first.
Tehran has suspended dialogue with mediators in protest against Israel 's expanding Lebanon offensive, Iran ian news agency Tasnim reported. This move marks a significant escalation in tensions as diplomatic efforts appear to stall.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers were seen near military vehicles in Lebanon, as observed from the Israeli side of the border. The situation has drawn international concern, with calls for restraint from various global actors. US President Donald Trump said on Monday that talks with Iran were moving at a rapid pace, even as Tehran threatened to widen the war by maintaining a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and activating other pressure points around the region.
Trump later claimed he had persuaded Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah to de-escalate, with Lebanon's US embassy stating the militant group accepted a US proposal for a ceasefire. However, threats and air strikes have failed to end the war or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas. The latest overnight US-Iran exchange of fire coincided with Israel expanding its ground offensive in Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to push deeper into the country and instructed his military to strike terrorist targets in Beirut's southern suburbs. Israel's Arabic-language spokesman told residents of the Dahiyeh suburb to evacuate for their safety, and AFP images showed huge traffic jams as people fled. Netanyahu later said he had told Trump that Israel would strike Beirut if Hezbollah did not stop attacking Israel, while continuing operations in southern Lebanon.
The United States has backed Israel's operations against Hezbollah while pursuing a deal with Iran to end the war, reopen Hormuz, and impose controls on Iran's nuclear programme. But Iran again said on Monday it had not engaged in any nuclear negotiations and insisted that Israel must halt its offensive in Lebanon before any wider deal could be agreed.
Ahead of a UN Security Council emergency meeting on Lebanon, the UN Secretary-General's spokesman expressed deep alarm over the escalation in military activities across southern Lebanon and beyond. Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the US naval blockade and Lebanon escalation were clear evidence of US non-compliance with the ceasefire. In a message carried by state TV, the Revolutionary Guards intelligence body said crossing the red lines in Lebanon and Gaza would mean direct war.
It stated Iran was determined to preserve what it called the Strait of Hormuz equation and to take meaningful actions by opening other fronts. Trump told NBC that did not mean Washington would start dropping bombs all over there, but insisted the US naval blockade would remain. Tasnim reported that Iran would keep Hormuz blocked and, with its allies, activate other fronts, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the entrance of the Red Sea.
Tehran's Houthi allies in Yemen have previously attacked shipping near Bab al-Mandab, whose closure could disrupt millions more barrels of oil exported daily by Saudi Arabia through its Red Sea port of Yanbu. In another sign of danger to Gulf shipping, the UKMTO maritime agency reported a large explosion on a cargo vessel off Iraq following a hit from an unknown projectile.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said no negotiations have taken place on the details of the nuclear file, emphasizing that their priority is ending the war. Trump insists Iran's nuclear programme must be part of any deal, stating Tehran must not get nuclear weapons, ambitions that Iran denies. Baqaei reiterated that a ceasefire in Lebanon is an essential condition for any deal aimed at ending the war, adding that the United States was also violating the ceasefire.
The US military said it carried out self-defence strikes on Iranian radar and drone control sites over the weekend, its third such wave in just over a week, after a US MQ-1 drone was downed. The Revolutionary Guards later told state media they had targeted an airbase used by the US military for the attack. They did not identify the country hosting the base, but Kuwait's military said its air defences intercepted hostile missile and drone attacks.
The Israeli army also announced that two more soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, bringing Israeli military deaths since early March to 27
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