WASHINGTON/DUBAI/TEL AVIV/BEIRUT, April 8 (Reuters) – Israel pounded Lebanon with its heaviest strikes yet on Wednesday, killing hundreds of people and drawing a threat of retaliation from Iran, which said the attacks violated a ceasefire deal agreed with the United States a day earlier.
Iran and the United States, meanwhile, laid out sharply contrasting agendas for talks that aim to forge a more durable peace in the region. Those talks, due to take place in Pakistan on Saturday, will be led by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
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Both Iranian officials questioned whether the ceasefire could hold, saying the ceasefire agreement had been undermined by Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon, where Israel has been pursuing a parallel war with the Iran-aligned militia Hezbollah.
“The U.S. must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Araqchi wrote on social media.
Israel and the United States both said the two-week ceasefire did not cover Lebanon, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes would continue.
“I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t,” Vance told reporters in Budapest, adding that Israel had agreed to show restraint to help the peace talks succeed.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire late on Tuesday, two hours before a deadline he had set for Iran to open the blockaded Strait of Hormuz or face the destruction of its “whole civilisation.”
Though both the United States and Iran declared victory in a five-week-old war that has killed thousands, their core disputes remained unresolved. Each side is sticking to competing demands for a deal that could shape the Middle East for generations.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions also remain a sticking point. Trump said Iran had agreed to stop enriching uranium, which can be turned into nuclear warheads, and the White House said Iran has indicated it would turn over its existing stocks.
“The United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried … Nuclear ‘Dust,” Trump said on social media.
Qalibaf, however, said it was allowed to continue enriching uranium under the terms of the ceasefire.
Despite the uncertainty, world stock indexes surged while oil prices plunged 14% to settle near $95 per barrel , after falling as low as $90.40.
Benchmark Brent crude remains roughly $25 higher than before the joint U.S.-Israel attacks began. Tehran’s newly demonstrated ability to cut off Gulf energy supplies through its grip on the strait, despite decades of massive U.S. military investment in the region, shows how the conflict has already altered power dynamics in the Gulf.
