Iran is halting indirect negotiations with the US after Israel ordered troops to push deeper into Lebanon to battle Tehran-backed Hezbollah, the Iranian news agency Tasnim said yesterday, complicating diplomatic efforts to end three months of war.
Tasnim said the Islamic Republic’s negotiating team was stopping exchanging messages with Washington through mediators over attacks on Lebanon, where the US-Israeli war against Iran has reignited Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah.
The move poses a further obstacle to hopes of a swift end to the crisis, after Iran said it had attacked a US air base following weekend US strikes on Iranian military targets that put further strain on a fragile ceasefire. Oil prices rose more than $5 a barrel after the Tasnim report.
And in a message carried by state TV, the Revolutionary Guards intelligence body said “Iran considers crossing the red lines in Lebanon and Gaza to mean direct war”.
It added: “In return, it is determined to carry out defensive operations by taking meaningful actions and opening new fronts, in addition to preserving the Strait of Hormuz equation.”
Tasnim also reported that Iran would continue to block the Strait of Hormuz and, with its allies, “activate other fronts, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait” at the entrance of the Red Sea.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that talks with Iran were ongoing, despite a report that Tehran had suspended indirect negotiations with the United States to end hostilities.
“Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump also said he had persuaded Israel and Hezbollah to de-escalate, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreeing not to send troops to southern Beirut and the Lebanese group promising to stop attacks.
Earlier in the day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei accused Washington of constantly shifting its negotiating stance and condemned what he called US aggressive action, reports Reuters.
“We insist that a ceasefire in Lebanon is an essential condition for any deal aimed at ending the war,” Baghaei said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also raised Lebanon, where another ceasefire is in place, as a stumbling block. “Violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation,” he said on X.
The US military said it had at the weekend struck Iranian air defences, a ground control station and two drones that were threatening ships after “aggressive Iranian actions”, including shooting down a US drone over international waters.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said yesterday it had targeted an air base used by the US in response to an attack on southern Iran.
It did not identify the base, but Kuwait activated air defences yesterday and denounced Iranian missile and drone attacks, which it said were undermining efforts to reduce tensions in the region.
US forces intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait late on Sunday, the US military said, adding that no American personnel were harmed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the battle against Hezbollah.
Netanyahu yesterday ordered the military to attack targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Netanyahu on the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and has proposed a plan to allow for “gradual de-escalation,” a US official said.
People began fleeing Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, in response to the Israeli warning - the latest wave of displacement in a conflict that has uprooted more than 1 million people in Lebanon.
