DUBAI/BEIRUT/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Israel bombed more targets in Lebanon on Thursday, putting the US-Iran ceasefire into further jeopardy after the biggest Israeli attacks on its neighbour of the war killed more than 250 people and threatened to torpedo Donald Trump’s truce.
In Pakistan, authorities locked down the capital Islamabad in anticipation of the war’s first peace talks, cutting off access to a 3-km (2-mile) zone around the five-star luxury Serena Hotel. Both the US and Iranian delegations are expected to stay at the hotel, which told all guests to check out until Sunday as it had been “requisitioned” for “an important event”.
But 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. Tehran said there would be no deal as long as Israel was striking Lebanon.
In the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, just a single oil products tanker and five dry bulk carriers sailed through a strait that accommodated 140 ships a day before the war.
Israel, which invaded Lebanon last month in parallel with the war on Iran to root out the Iran-aligned group Hezbollah, says its actions there are not covered by the ceasefire announced late on Tuesday by Trump.
Washington has also said Lebanon is not covered by the truce, but Iran and Pakistan, which acted as mediator, say it was explicitly part of the deal. A host of countries, including Britain and France, said the truce should extend to Lebanon.
A Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussions said Pakistan was working on a ceasefire for Lebanon, as well as for Yemen, another country where Israel has hit Iran-aligned forces: “It will be discussed during the (upcoming) talks and we will settle it.”
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, expected to head the Iranian delegation opposite US Vice President JD Vance, tweeted that Lebanon and the rest of Iran’s “axis” of regional allies were inseparable parts of any ceasefire.
The Israeli military said it had killed the nephew of Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem and struck river crossings in southern Lebanon overnight. Israel hit Beirut’s southern suburbs just before midnight and at dawn, and hit towns across the south on Thursday morning, Lebanese state media said.
