\n<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has claimed that Lebanon was not included in the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, contradicting the assertion of Pakistan, which mediated the truce.<\/p>\n
After Israel launched a massive assault on Lebanon on Wednesday, killing and injuring more than 1,400 people in densely populated areas, Trump said the Israeli war on Hezbollah is a \u201cseparate skirmish\u201d.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cBecause of Hezbollah, they were not included in the deal,\u201d Trump told the public broadcaster PBS. \u201cThat\u2019ll get taken care of, too. It\u2019s all right.\u201d<\/p>\n White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt echoed the US president\u2019s comment later on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aLebanon is not part of the ceasefire that has been relayed to all parties involved in the ceasefire,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n Leavitt also dismissed speculations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be looking to undermine the truce by attacking Lebanon, saying that Israel remains a \u201ckey ally and partner\u201d to the US.<\/p>\n Neither Leavitt nor Trump addressed Pakistan\u2019s announcement that Lebanon was part of the ceasefire.<\/p>\n The exclusion of Lebanon from the truce risks jeopardising the ceasefire across the region. State-affiliated Iranian news outlets have reported that Tehran will take serious steps to respond to the Israeli attacks in Lebanon.<\/p>\n The Fars News Agency said \u201coil tankers have been suspended from passing through the Strait of Hormuz\u201d in response to the Israeli assault.<\/p>\n Iranian officials, however, have not confirmed the report. It is also unclear whether the purported suspension was temporary or if it will remain in effect for a longer term.<\/p>\n The news agency Tasnim also cited an informed Iranian source as saying that Tehran would withdraw from the agreement if Israel continues to violate the ceasefire with its attack on Lebanon.<\/p>\n A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera Arabic that Tehran will \u201cpunish Israel in response to the crime it committed in Lebanon\u201d.<\/p>\n The official stressed that the ceasefire includes the entire region. \u201cIsrael is known for breaking promises and will only be deterred by bullets,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n But Iran has not launched missiles or drones at Israel in the hours following the Israeli strikes in Lebanon.<\/p>\n Later on Wednesday, Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that fighting would start again if Israel does not observe the ceasefire in Lebanon.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the aggressions against dear Lebanon are not stopped immediately, we will do our duty and give a regretful response to the evil aggressors in the region,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Late on Tuesday, Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the two-week truce covers the entire region, specifically mentioning Lebanon.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY,\u201d Sharif wrote on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Arghchi shared Sharif\u2019s post on Wednesday, highlighting the part about Lebanon.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Iran-US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose \u2013 ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,\u201d Arghchi wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Channel 12 also reported that Iran had insisted on Lebanon being included in the ceasefire.<\/p>\n But Netanyahu was quick to assert that attacks against Lebanon would continue.<\/p>\n Hours after his remarks, Israel launched one of its most intense attacks in the history of the conflict in Lebanon, bombing residential buildings, mosques, medical centres, vehicles and cemeteries across the country.<\/p>\n Lebanese health authorities said the Israeli onslaught killed at least 254 people and injured more than 1,160 others.<\/p>\n \u201cThe needs are increasing, but the scale of the assault is also huge,\u201d Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are facing a dangerous escalation that happened in Lebanon, an Israeli aggression with more than 100 air strikes that targeted innocent civilians in Beirut, Dahiyeh, Bekaa, Mount Lebanon and the south.\u201d<\/p>\n The attacks compounded the humanitarian and displacement crises in Lebanon, where more than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes.<\/p>\n One strike targeted a funeral in the Bekaa Valley town of Shmestar, killing at least 20 people.<\/p>\n Several air raids were also reported in central Beirut and the coastal cities of Sidon and Tyre.<\/p>\n Lebanon\u2019s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on the international community to step in and \u201cbring an end to these aggressions\u201d.<\/p>\n Israel \u201cremains utterly heedless of all regional and international efforts to halt the war \u2013 not to mention its utter disregard for the principles of international law and international humanitarian law, which it has never respected\u201d, Salam said.<\/p>\n For its part, Hezbollah said the Israeli attacks were driven by \u201cblind malice, habitual criminality and boundless brutality\u201d. It re-asserted what it called its \u201cnatural and legal right\u201d to resist the assault.<\/p>\n \u201cThis barbaric aggression \u2013 which constitutes documented war crimes and acts of genocide through targeting of densely populated civilian areas, markets and commercial shops during peak hours \u2013 is nothing more than a desperate attempt to exact revenge upon the civilian population,\u201d the Iran-allied group said.<\/p>\n The war between Israel and Hezbollah intensified after the Lebanese group launched a rocket attack on Israel early in March. Hezbollah said that attack came in response to Israeli violations and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n The parties had reached a ceasefire in November 2024, but Israel has continued to carry out daily attacks across Lebanon in the more than 15 months since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Donald Trump has claimed that Lebanon was not included in the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, contradicting the assertion of Pakistan, which mediated the truce. After Israel launched a massive assault on Lebanon on Wednesday, killing and injuring more than 1,400 people in densely populated areas, Trump said the Israeli war on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Iranian warnings<\/h2>\n
At least 250 people killed<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"