Iran Says It Is Halting Talks With U.S. Over Israel’s Lebanon Offensive

Iran announced Monday that it was suspending talks with the United States unless Israel halts its expanding offensive in southern Lebanon, a move that deepened the uncertainty around an effort to extend the ceasefire in the three-month-old war, NPR reported.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran’s negotiators were stopping “talks and exchange of texts through a mediator,” because the ceasefire “has now been violated on all fronts, including Lebanon.” Iran also demanded an end to Israeli operations in Gaza and a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas of Lebanon. NPR noted that senior Iranian officials had not immediately confirmed the suspension, and that messages between the two sides have mostly been relayed through Pakistan. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said any U.S.-Iran ceasefire covers all fronts, including Lebanon, and that a violation on one front violates it on all fronts, the Associated Press reported.

President Trump responded on Truth Social that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, through intermediaries, with Hezbollah. “There will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” he wrote, adding that Hezbollah “agreed that all shooting will stop.” He later posted that “Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Netanyahu issued a statement saying Israeli forces would “continue operating in southern Lebanon as planned,” and said he told Trump that Israel will strike targets in Beirut if Hezbollah does not stop attacking Israeli cities and civilians, NPR reported.

The statements came with mixed signals from Washington. PBS NewsHour reported that Trump told NBC, “I think going silent would be very good,” and told CNBC, “I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” before posting that discussions were moving quickly. The AP, citing a U.S. official, reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had proposed that Hezbollah stop all attacks on Israel while Israel avoids escalating in Beirut, and that the administration did not expect Israel to stop retaliating.

The fighting in Lebanon has become tangled with the U.S.-Iran effort. Israeli forces have crossed the Litani River and seized the Crusader-era Beaufort Castle, the deepest Israeli push into Lebanon in more than 25 years, PBS reported. Lebanese and Israeli representatives were due to hold talks in Washington on Tuesday. The AP said Lebanon’s health authorities count 3,433 people killed in the conflict, and the Israeli prime minister’s office says at least 26 soldiers and a defense contractor have died in or near southern Lebanon.

The stakes reach American households through the Strait of Hormuz. NPR said that before the war a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed through the waterway, and that traffic has nearly halted under competing U.S. and Iranian blockades, sending prices higher. Over the weekend, PBS reported, the United States said Iran had shot down an American drone, and U.S. Central Command responded by striking air defenses and a ground-control site on the coast. NPR said the two sides had said last week they were close to a tentative 60-day ceasefire extension and a framework for talks, but the agreement was still waiting on Trump’s approval.

Firas Maksad of the Eurasia Group told PBS that the Washington talks between Lebanon and Israel could give Trump a breakthrough, and that a success in Lebanon could help him keep Iran at the table.