Less than 24 hours after agreeing to a ceasefire, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again on Wednesday after Israeli strikes killed more than 100 people in Lebanon. US and Israel claimed that Lebanon was not a part of the two-week “ceasefire” agreement that was agreed upon minutes before a deadline set by President Donald Trump.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shared a post put out by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier in the day mentioning that Lebanon was part of the deal.
Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon and said that Tel Aviv is violating terms of ceasefire by continuing strikes on Beirut.
According to Lebanese Civil Defense, the death toll from Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Wednesday have risen to 254.
US President Donald Trump earlier told PBS News Hour that Lebanon was not included in the deal because of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. When asked about Israel’s fresh strikes on Beirut, Trump said “That’s a separate skirmish.”
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.
The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments. pic.twitter.com/2bzVlHFKgi
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had earlier said that the Pakistan-backed ceasefire deal does not extend to its war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah. However, mediator Pakistan has said that the ceasefire proposal included Lebanon in the deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a press briefing on Wednesday said, that the ceasefire signed between Washington-Tel Aviv and Tehran will not include Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah. “A ceasefire with Iran will not include Hezbollah. We are continuing to hit Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said.
Contradicting Netanyahu’s stance, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a post on X, said the terms of the two-week Iran–US ceasefire are “clear and explicit,” and argued that Washington will have to choose between truce and “continued war via Israel”.
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In the X post, Araghchi wrote, “The Iran–US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
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