President Donald Trump has warned Iran and Israel “let’s not blow it” after an Israeli attack on a Hezbollah command centre in Beirut threatened to derail the US-brokered peace agreement with Tehran. The strike came just hours before a ceasefire was expected to be signed on Trump’s 80th birthday, with US officials suggesting a deal would be finalised today.
Israel said it had targeted the command centre in response to rockets fired into northern Israel. The attack raised fears that the fragile truce, announced by the US and Iran on Sunday, could collapse before it is even signed. The ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan and Qatar, is supposed to last for 60 days while the future of Iran’s nuclear programme is negotiated. But it will not be signed until Friday, according to Yahoo News.
“Trump warns Iran and Israel not to derail peace deal after Israeli strike on Beirut; ceasefire signed on his 80th birthday.”
Trump’s vice-president, JD Vance, declared that Iran’s nuclear programme has been “comprehensively destroyed”. But former president Barack Obama dismissed the new agreement, saying it was unlikely to be “significantly different” from the 2015 deal he struck with Iran. The BBC’s Gary O’Donoghue contrasted the two presidents’ approaches.
Meanwhile, Trump himself remains unsure whether he will attend the signing ceremony, the Independent reports. The venue is believed to be Geneva.
The ceasefire has been widely seen as a retreat. The US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran at the end of February with clear war aims: to bomb Iran’s nuclear ambitions into oblivion, topple the theocratic regime, and destroy its military infrastructure and proxy forces. None of these aims has been achieved, according to Yahoo News. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz when attacked, causing a spike in oil prices, a global shortage of fertiliser in the planting season for the northern hemisphere, and a further blow to America’s strategic reputation.
Iran has wrapped a Lebanese ceasefire into its demands for an end to hostilities with the US and Israel, while Israel wants to continue its assault on Lebanon. It is not clear whether Iran can rein in Hezbollah, its proxy force there. The ceasefire announcement, if it holds, will take the region back to the status quo ante: a murderous regime working on a nuclear weapon, but allowing trade through the sea lanes it controls.
Discussions about the future of Iran’s nuclear programme have been kicked down the road to be held over the next two months — with the regime that Trump supposedly decapitated.