A ceasefire deal to pause the war in Iran appeared to hang by a thread Wednesday after the Islamic Republic closed the Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The White House tried to keep peace talks on track and demanded that the channel be reopened. Even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab nations, world leaders expressed relief that the agreement had been reached, and the United States and Iran both claimed victory. At the same time, Israel intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, hitting commercial and residential areas in Beirut. At least 182 people were killed Wednesday in the deadliest day of fighting there.
The new violence posed a threat to what U.S. Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
The speaker of the parliament says that the US violated Iran’s terms. The Iranian parliament speaker said planned talks were “unreasonable” because Washington broke three of Tehran’s 10 conditions for an end to the fighting. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf criticized Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, a rumored drone incursion into Iranian airspace following the ceasefire, and the United States’ refusal to accept any Iranian enrichment capabilities in a final agreement in a social media post. Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, insisted that the ceasefire agreement with the United States included an end to the war in Lebanon. The United States and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Lebanon was not included in the truce, according to President Donald Trump. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,” Araghchi said in a post on X. “The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed 182 people on Wednesday, the highest single-day death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, reported in Iranian state media, was “completely unacceptable.” She reaffirmed Trump’s “expectation and demand” for the channel to be restored. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said American and Israeli forces had achieved a “capital V military victory” and that the Iranian military no longer posed a significant threat to U.S. forces or the region. The Iranian military said the country forced Israel and the U.S. to accept its “proposed conditions and surrender.”
According to the White House, Trump will hold Iran accountable for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. Much about the agreement was unclear as the sides presented vastly different visions of the terms.
Iran said the deal would allow it to formalize its new practice of charging ships passing through the strait, a crucial transit lane for oil. According to the White House, Trump is against charging ships to pass through the strait. Only 11 vessels moved through the strait Wednesday, roughly the same as in prior days, according to Windward, a maritime intelligence firm. Iran was requiring shippers to pay tolls of up to $1 a barrel for outbound oil, it said. The largest supertankers carry up to 3 million barrels of crude.
About The Author
