Trump says Israel and Lebanon agree to extend ceasefire by three weeks – Middle East crisis live

Hezbollah said on Thursday it launched rockets at northern Israel in response to the country’s ceasefire “violation”, Reuters reports.

“In defence of Lebanon and its people, and in response to the Israeli enemy’s violation of the ceasefire and its targeting of the town of Yater in southern Lebanon,” Hezbollah “targeted the Shtula settlement with a rocket salvo”, the Iran-backed militant group said in a statement.

The Israeli military said “several launches that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were identified” and intercepted.

The attacks come as the US is slated to host a second meeting between Lebanese and Israeli envoys on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters earlier today, Donald Trump said that he would not use a nuclear weapon against Iran as the conflict continues without a clear end in sight.

“Why would I use a nuclear weapon where we’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it?”, he said on Thursday. “No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.”

Trump posted a threat on social media earlier this month saying that a “whole civilization will die tonight,” referring to Iran, unless the country reached a deal to reopen the strait of Hormuz.

Trump also told reporters that Iran might have loaded up their weaponry “a little bit” during the two-week ceasefire. He said that the US military could “knock that out” in about one day.

When he was asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal with Iran, he replied: “Don’t rush me”.

“Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone …maybe they loaded up a little bit during the two-week hiatus, but we’ll knock that out about one day, if they did,” Trump added.

“I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now … but I don’t want to do that. I want to have it everlasting,” Trump said.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, US president Donald Trump said the US has “hit about 75% of our targets” in Iran. He later said that number was 78% percent.

“We’ve hit about 75% of our targets,” he said on Thursday. “We stopped a little early because they want to have some peace, and we have a blockade that’s 100% effective, and they’re getting no business.”

“They’re not doing well economically, financially, they’re not doing any business because of the blockade,” Trump said.

He also said a deal has not been reached yet because “they’re in turmoil”.

“We have been speaking to them, but they don’t even know who is leading the country. They’re in turmoil. They’re in turmoil, so we thought we’d give them a little chance to get some of their turmoil resolved,” Trump said.

“I took the country out militarily in the first four weeks,” he said. “Now what we’re doing is sitting back and seeing what deal, and if they don’t want to make a deal, then I’ll finish it up militarily with the other 25% of the targets. We’ve hit 78% of the targets that we’ve wanted to hit.”

Analysis: Trump may talk of regime infighting, but Iran seems united by strategy born of war

Donald Trump has claimed that the infighting between moderates and hardliners in Iran’s leadership is so intense that the country has “no idea who their leader is”, but many Iranian experts questioned his analysis, saying that – given the mass assassinations of senior commanders – the country has shown remarkable institutional cohesion.

Trump’s allegations of “CRAZY” splits in the Iranian leadership – the second outing for this argument in three days – is remarkable since he has previously said either he has little knowledge of the new Iranian leadership or that there has already been regime change.

But Trump’s team, either through Pakistani mediators or more direct contacts, may be picking up that different factions are demanding different preconditions for the talks to restart. Trump at a minimum is implying that military hardliners have taken charge from the civilian diplomatic leadership.

It is hardly a secret that Iran has been riven for decades over how to approach the US and the wisdom of negotiations, but some Iranian academics and observers are accusing Trump of cognitive warfare: attempting to create what Mohamed Amersi, a member of the Global Advisory Council at the Wilson Centre, described as “chronic systemic paralysis in which the country’s decision making machine becomes deadlocked”.

You can read the full analysis here:

Britain is prepared to deploy a squadron of RAF Typhoons based in Qatar to patrol over the strait of Hormuz as part of a multinational mission to keep open the strategic waterway once the Iran war comes to an end.

The UK military also offered to deploy mine-hunting drones and specialist divers to help clear the strait mined by Iran – but no decision has been made on whether HMS Dragon or another warship would also be deployed.

The Typhoon proposal was at the heart of the offer made by British military planners during a 30-country two-day meeting held at the UK’s Northwood headquarters and organised jointly with France.

Eight of the fast jets are currently based in Qatar and a number were active in shooting down Shahed drones in defence of allied countries in the Gulf during the 38-day war in the Middle East that followed the US-Israel attack on Iran.

Germany, Norway, South Korea and Australia were among the countries that sent representatives to the meeting, which ended on Thursday. British sources would not confirm if the US participated, though they insisted the Americans were “kept abreast”.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said that there are no “hardliners” or “moderates” in Iran, responding to US president’s Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social claiming that there is internal division within Iran’s leadership.

“We are all Iranians and revolutionaries,” Pezeshkian wrote in a post on social media. “With ironclad unity of nation and state and obedience to the Supreme Leader, we will make the aggressor regret.”

Separately, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said in a post on social media that Iran’s state institutions “continue to act with unity, purpose, and discipline”.

“The battlefield and diplomacy are fully coordinated fronts in the same war. Iranians are all united, more than ever before,” Araghchi said.

In a post on Truth Social, US president Donald Trump said he is “possibly the least pressured person ever” to end the war in Iran.

“I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!,” he wrote.

“A Deal will only be made when it’s appropriate and good for the United States of America, our Allies and, in fact, the rest of the World,” Trump added.

US President Donald Trump is slated to meet Israeli and Lebanese envoys when they hold a second round of peace talks on Thursday, a US official said.

“The ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon will now take place at the White House,” the official said. “President Trump will greet both representatives upon their arrival.”

Pope Leo XIV urged the United States and Iran to return to talks to end the war Thursday and condemned capital punishment, calling for a new “culture of peace” to replace the recourse to violence.

“As a pastor I cannot be in favor of war,” he told reporters in a press conference on his way home from his trip to Africa. “I would like to encourage everyone to find responses that come from a culture of peace and not hatred and division.”

The pope said that he carries with him a photograph of a Muslim Lebanese boy who had been killed in Israel’s recent war with Hezbollah. The photo shows the boy holding a sign welcoming the pope when he visited Lebanon last year.

“As a pastor I cannot be in favor of war,” he said. “I would like to encourage everyone to find responses that come from a culture of peace and not hatred and division.”

In regards to Iran’s recent executions, the pope said he condemns “the taking of people’s lives. I condemn capital punishment. I believe human life is to be respected and that all people from conception to natural (death), their lives should be respected and protected.”

“So when a regime, when a country takes decisions which take away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that is something that should be condemned,” he said.

According to several Israeli news sources, Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has resigned from leading negotiations with the United States.

This is a developing story.

US Central Command said on Thursday that 33 vessels have been ordered to turn around or return to port as part of its blockade on ships leaving from or heading to Iran.

That adds two more vessels since its last update on Wednesday night.

The White House press secretary said on Wednesday that US president Donald Trump was “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position”.

However, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament and lead negotiator, said that the reopening the strait of Hormuz would be “impossible” while the US and Israel committed “flagrant” breaches of the ceasefire, including the US naval blockade, “the hostage-taking of the world’s economy” and “Zionist warmongering”.

Lebanon’s foreign minister Yousseff Raggi said in a post on social media that there is “no shame in negotiating with Israel if the goal is to end the war, recover territory, and secure a lasting peace.”

“Lebanon can no longer endure wars fought on its soil on behalf of others, nor can Hezbollah continue to sell the illusion of victory,” he wrote.

• US president Donald Trump said he has ordered the US Navy “to shoot and kill any boat” that is laying mines in the strait of Hormuz. He also said that US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” to clear any mines from the waters.

• Israel is awaiting the green light from the US to “return Iran to the Stone Age”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Thursday. “Israel is prepared to renew the war against Iran. The IDF is ready in defense and offense, and the targets are marked,” Katz said.

• An American-Kuwaiti journalist held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war has been cleared of all charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to the New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on 3 March for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.

• Italian UN peacekeepers have replaced the statue of Jesus Christ vandalised by Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday. The sculpture of a crucified Jesus was located in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

• The United Nations said Thursday it was “working on” maintaining a presence in Lebanon once the mandate for its Unifil peacekeeping force expires at the end of the year, AFP reported. “In terms of the post-Unifil, we’re currently in the process of working on these options,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, with the Lebanese government “very clear that they would want to keep a UN presence”.

• An Israeli drone strike killed three men inside a car Thursday in central Gaza Strip, health officials said. Those killed were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

• Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said. In a short statement, the ministry announced that “15-year-old Youssef Sameh Shtayyeh was killed by the [Israeli] occupation’s gunfire in Nablus”, in the north of the West Bank.

• The US military stopped and boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian ocean which the Pentagon said was carrying oil from Iran, in the second such action this week. The US defence department said its forces carried out “a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding” of the M/T Majestic X overnight.

• Italy is ready to deploy up to four vessels, including two minesweepers, to the strait of Hormuz to clear it of mines, the Italian navy’s chief of staff, Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, said. Speaking to Italy’s Rai network, Bergotto said the mission is being planned with the UK, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

• The son of the former Shah appealed to Western countries to join the war against Iran and criticised the decision of the German government not to meet him during his visit to Berlin on Thursday. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power in 1979, accused Europe of standing by and allowing the Tehran government to continue the bloody repression of protests that killed thousands at the end of last year.

• The deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, Hamid Reza Haji Babaei, said Iran has received its first revenue from tolls levied on ships in the strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The fees have been deposited into the central bank of Iran, the news agency reported, without disclosing the amount.

• Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said the world is facing “the biggest energy security threat in history”. In an interview with CNBC, Birol cited the loss of around 13 million barrels per day of oil supply due to the Iran war and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed three people on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the latest attack despite a 10-day truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In a statement, the ministry said that “an Israeli airstrike on the Shoukine road in the Nabatieh district”, more than 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Israel, killed three people while a strike on the village of Yater wounded two people, including a child.

The attacks come hours ahead of the second meeting between Lebanon and Israel’s US ambassadors in Washington, where Beirut is expected to ask for a ceasefire extension.