Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday ordered his ministers to begin direct talks with Lebanon, but ruled out a ceasefire with Hezbollah amid mounting concern that ongoing Israeli strikes could unravel the fragile US-Iran truce.”

His move came as international concern over the strikes that killed at least 303 people on Wednesday. Hezbollah said it was engaged in close-quarters combat against Israeli forces on the ground in the south Lebanon town of Bint Jbeil.

Trump announced a ceasefire in the six-week-old Iran conflict late on Tuesday, just hours before a deadline after which he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilisation.

In Pakistan, authorities were preparing for the first round of US-Iran talks, locking down parts of the capital, Islamabad. However, the fighting in Lebanon put enough doubt on the participation of the Iranian side. It’s Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned Tehran sees Lebanon as an “inseparable part of the ceasefire”, and President Masoud Pezeshkian said Israel’s strikes rendered “meaningless” talks with US envoys on Friday or Saturday.

And there was no sign Iran was lifting its near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the worst disruption to global energy supplies in history.

In a defiant statement, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei yesterday said that Iran was not seeking war but would not forfeit its rights.

The statement attributed to Khamenei was read on state TV. He has not been seen in public since he took over from his father, who was killed on the first day of the war.

Khamenei said Iran will seek retribution for attacks against it and “will take management of the Straits of Hormuz into a new phase.” He also vowed to avenge the deaths of his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran’s “martyrs”.

In the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, just a single oil products tanker and five dry bulk carriers sailed through a strait that typically accommodated 140 ships a day before the war, accounting for around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows.

Netanyahu, whose government rebuffed a historic offer for direct talks with Lebanon last month, said in a statement that he had given instructions to start peace talks as soon as possible, which would also include disarming Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah.

However, only a couple of hours later, he released another message, saying “there is no ceasefire in Lebanon”.

“We continue to strike Hezbollah with force, and we will not stop until we restore your security,” in a message published by the prime minister’s office.

Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s objectives - to disarm Hezbollah and “to secure a historic and sustainable peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon”.

This message comes after US President Donald Trump told US media that Netanyahu had told him Israel would be “scaling back” attacks in Lebanon as peace talks play out.

Both Israel and the US insist that Lebanon is not covered by the ceasefire. Pakistan and Iran say Lebanon was included in it.

Amid fears that the fragile truce could break down in the Gulf, there were international calls for the ceasefire to encompass Lebanon.

“Israeli actions are putting the US-Iran ceasefire under severe strain. The Iran truce should extend to Lebanon,” the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said.

France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot condemned the strikes as “unacceptable”, while his British counterpart Yvette Cooper called for the ceasefire to include Lebanon.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Israel’s attacks on Lebanon were “deeply damaging” and Britain wants to “see Lebanon included in the ceasefire”.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “contempt for life and international law is intolerable.” He also called for Lebanon to be included in the ceasefire.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest the attacks, adding: “We want to avoid there being a second Gaza.”

UN Secretary General António Guterres also “unequivocally” condemned the strikes.

The Lebanese prime minister’s office yesterday said it would be “a national day of mourning for the martyrs and wounded of the Israeli attacks that targeted hundreds of innocent, defenceless civilians”.

UN rights chief Volker Turk called the scale of killing in Lebanon “horrific”, after strikes across the capital Beirut that came without warning triggered horror and panic.

US Vice President JD Vance backed Israel in saying Lebanon was excluded from the truce. He was due to lead talks with Tehran in Pakistan.

“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart... over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them, and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.

Separately, the head of Iran’s nuclear energy agency, Mohammad Eslami, dismissed Washington’s suggestions that the truce deal would halt Tehran’s nuclear programme.

“The claims and demands of our enemies to restrict Iran’s enrichment programme are merely wishes that will be buried,” he said.

The bellicose rhetoric came ahead of high-stakes talks in Pakistan expected on Friday or Saturday.

Iran yesterday announced alternative routes for ships travelling through the strait, citing the risk of sea mines.

The EU yesterday said that freedom of navigation in the strait must be ensured with “no payment or toll whatsoever”, after Iran suggested it could charge for letting ships through.

The war has also strained US ties with Nato, with Trump threatening to quit the alliance if it doesn’t join its effort to open Hormuz.

Three European diplomats yesterday told Reuters that Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte has briefed some capitals that Trump wants concrete commitments within the next few days for help securing the strait.

Rutte met with Trump in Washington on Wednesday, amid tensions within the alliance over the Iran war.

Meanwhile, an Israeli court yesterday said corruption trial against Netanyahu’s will resume on Sunday, hours after Israel lifted a state of emergency imposed over its war with Iran.

Netanyahu, the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be charged with a crime, denies charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust brought in 2019 after years of investigations. His trial, which began in 2020 and could lead to jail terms, has been repeatedly delayed due to his official commitments, with no end date in sight.

Israel is due to hold elections in October, and Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, is likely to lose.