Iran says “no tangible progress” made in talks with U.S. as Israel strikes Lebanon

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is awaiting Hezbollah’s response to a potential ceasefire deal with Israel, which could begin within 24 hours if the militant group agrees to terms, according to an Al Jazeera journalist.

Aoun spoke to a small number of reporters at the Baabe Palace Thursday morning, according to Mazen Ibrahim, the Beirut bureau chief of the Qatari-state outlet. He told them that the Presidency is awaiting responses from all concerned parties before making an announcement on the agreement reached with Israel via the U.S. mediator.

Under the terms of the renewed ceasefire, Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon from which the militant group Hezbollah would be banned.

The ceasefire “is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives” from areas south of the Litani River.

Aoun that the implementation of the ceasefire could begin within 24 hours of final approval.

In practical terms, he is waiting to hear back from the two main Shia blocs – the Amal Movement and Hezbollah – before making an announcement about what lies ahead.

He referred to the talks in Washington on Wednesday, indicating that they were “very difficult” and that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to personally intervene to get them resumed after they were briefly suspended by the head of the Lebanese delegation, Simon Karam.

Iran’s supreme leader accused the U.S. and Israel Thursday of trying to sow “division” among Iranians after suffering a “decisive blow” during the Middle East war.

In a written message, Mojtaba Khamenei said “the malicious enemy” was seeking to “plant the seeds of doubt, despair, fear, mistrust and division” among the public.

“In confronting these ill intentions, everyone must, through steadfastness, insight, preserving unity and cohesion … neutralize their sinister plot,” his message said.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon — the U.N. Interim Force, known as UNIFIL — said Thursday that a peacekeeper was killed and two others wounded when shelling hit their base in the country’s southeast, near the town of Marjayoun, the previous night.

“A UNIFIL peacekeeper died early this morning from critical injuries sustained when mortar shells struck his position,” a statement from the force said, adding that an investigation had been launched.

UNIFIL said it was launching an investigation “to ascertain the exact circumstances that led to this tragic incident.”

The mission said it had “detected an increasingly high number of trajectories and impacts in South Lebanon.”

“The violence must end,” it added.

The peacekeeper was named Thursday as Senior Sergeant Milovan Jovanovic, a Serbian national, by his country’s defense ministry.

He was “given emergency medical care at a hospital inside the base after being wounded and then transported by helicopter to the University Medical Center in Beirut, where he died,” a statement said.

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Israel’s defense minister said Thursday that the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon grants the Israeli military the “freedom” to strike Beirut if Hezbollah attacks Israeli communities, adding that Israeli operations in southern Lebanon would continue.

“The IDF will, at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations, remain in the security zone in Lebanon up to the Yellow Line — including in the Beaufort area — and without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure on the ground,” Israel Katz said in a statement hailing the ceasefire renewal deal reached on Wednesday.

He said Israeli forces retained the “freedom of action, with American backing, to strike in Beirut in response to fire on Israeli communities and territory.”

Separately, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called the renewal a “serious mistake,” adding in a social media post that “the pipe dreams of advisers are dragging the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) to wrong decisions.

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Lebanese official media reported Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Thursday morning, hours after an announcement that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to renew a ceasefire following talks in Washington.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli drone strikes along roads at several south Lebanon locations, saying at least one resulted in a couple and their daughter being wounded in an attack on their car.

The Israeli Army’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichai Edrei issued an evacuation warning to residents of southern Lebanon on X Thursday morning, saying that “the fighting is still ongoing against targets that use Hezbollah.”

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Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that “no tangible progress” has been made in negotiations to end the Middle East war.

Araghchi said lines of communication with the U.S. were still open, but warned that any Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital Beirut as part of its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah would trigger a “full-scale resumption” of the conflict.

“Communications with the Americans have not been cut off, and messages have been exchanged regarding the need to stop aggression against Beirut, but no tangible progress has been made in the negotiation process,” Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted Araghchi as telling Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV.

“Any attack on Beirut will have grave consequences and will lead to a full-scale resumption of the war,” he said. “Our armed forces are ready to strike Israel if it attacks Beirut.”

Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon from which the militant group Hezbollah would be banned.

In a joint statement released by the U.S., Lebanon and Israel after a fourth round of U.S.-mediated talks at the State Department in Washington, the two sides said the ceasefire “is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives” from areas south of the Litani River.

It was not immediately clear how the security zones would be established, but the agreement calls for the Lebanese army to take full control of those areas.

“These steps will enable progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” the statement said. “All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments. They rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon’s future hostage.”

The latter is a reference to Iran, which supports Hezbollah and has insisted that Israeli attacks on Lebanon be halted as part of a possible agreement with the U.S. to end the conflict with Iran. Hezbollah is not part of the Israel-Lebanon talks.

The House on Wednesday passed a measure that would force President Trump to end the war with Iran without congressional authorization, marking the first time the lower chamber has defied the White House on the conflict.

The House voted 215 to 208 to narrowly approve the war powers resolution with the help of four Republicans. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, who has voted against the three previous failed attemptsalso dropped his opposition and voted for the measure, giving his party unanimity on the issue.

The vote was supposed to take place before lawmakers left for the Memorial Day recess, but House GOP leaders abruptly pulled the vote when it became clear they did not have the numbers to block it. Several Republicans were absent and others were expected to support it.

The Senate advanced a similar measure in May to rein in Mr. Trump on Iran after four Republicans joined all but one Democrat to push it forward. It’s unclear when they plan to vote on the House version.

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In the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon, a reporter asked President Trump how he defines a ceasefire, given continued conflict with Iran.

“Pretty much the way it is,” he said. “That’s a different part of the world. You know, I’d say in that part of the world, a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.”

President Trump brought reporters into the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon and took some questions. One reporter asked if, given Iran’s latest attack on Kuwait, the ceasefire with Iran is still ongoing.

“Well, you know, there’s a reason for everything,” Mr. Trump said. “And we hit them pretty hard the night before and actually last night … We’ve been hitting them pretty hard.”

The president said the U.S. “nipped it in the bud” pretty quickly.

ranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that the country’s military was “conducting self-defense strikes on sites the U.S. is permitted to use to attack civilian shipping and violate the ceasefire.”

Alongside his remark, Araghchi included a short video clip of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying, “Our allies in the region have been very cooperative, some obviously very aggressively cooperative, like the U.A.E. as an example. Kuwait’s been fantastic.”

Araghchi said that “any hostile act will be met with an immediate, decisive response.”

“What sanctions and war failed to achieve won’t be won with more war,” he added.

The U.S. military said earlier that it had carried out its own “self-defense strikes” against Iran.