US official says Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreed as Trump lashes out at Iran deal critics – Middle East crisis live

Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesperson from Iran’s foreign ministry, has denied reports that Tehran has invited the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its nuclear facilities – Al Jazeera reports.

He says that Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear programme pending a final deal with the US.

Concerns are being raised as to when Iran and US will finalise their peace deal, now that their 60-day-period has started to come to an agreement. Talks were supposed to start on Friday in Switzerland, but have been postponed.

Baghaei says inspections of facilities that have been carried out until now, such as at Bushehr, will continue. However inspections of any other facilities, where visits from the IAEA was suspended during the war, will take place once a final deal has been reached.

Barack Obama has said that after 15 weeks of war with Iran, the US is now “worse off” than before the conflict started in February.

“We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off,” the former US president told NBC News in an interview that aired on Friday.

Obama, who spoke to the outlet before the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago today, offered remarks on the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran signed by Donald Trump in Paris earlier this week.

“I am very happy to see a ceasefire,” Obama said. “And I’m hopeful that it holds.”

Obama has been critical of the rationale for the conflict and questioned the first Trump administration’s decision to tear up the 2015 agreement with Iran that was negotiated by the Obama administration. Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, that deal restricted Iran from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapon in exchange for lifting international economic sanctions.

Obama said that under the JCPOA, “Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons”, but noted that Trump then “pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity”.

The former president’s remarks come as the White House said that JD Vance had delayed a planned trip to Switzerland to lead a new round of talks with the Islamic republic focusing on the nuclear issue.

Read the full report here:

The Iranian foreign ministry has said there is “no urgency” to meet US negotiators in Switzerland, as a memorandum of understanding to end the Middle East war had already been signed electronically.

“Given that the signing of the text of the MoU was done digitally on June 18, there is no urgency to hold the said meeting in Switzerland, but we are planning to hold a meeting in the coming days,” the ministry’s spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, said.

Israeli airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon today have killed at least 21 people, according to the Lebanese health officials.

The IDF also announced four of its soldiers were killed in Lebanon as violence escalated between the Israeli military and Hezbollah overnight.

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed 18 people and wounded 33, the country’s health ministry said, according to the state-run National News Agency. Another three people were killed and six injured in attacks in the eastern Baalbek area, which had been largely spared since the start of the renewed conflict in March.

The IDF said the strikes were in response to “repeated violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah”.

There has not been official confirmation of a ceasefire in Lebanon from either Israel or Hezbollah, but it reportedly came into effect at 4pm local time (it is now 4.45pm in Beirut).

Effie Defrin, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, said the IDF will remain in southern Lebanon and “carry on with its mission until ordered otherwise” to protect civilians in northern Israel.

Addressing the reported ceasefire during a press briefing, he said: “Our objective and mission are very clear. Anything concerning any agreements is a matter for the government.

“As long as we haven’t received different orders, we’ll act in accordance with the army’s chief of staff’s orders.”

In a post on social media, the IDF said it launched more than 150 strikes in Lebanon since midnight.

Hezbollah has implemented the ceasefire with Israel that was due to take effect from 4pm today, two sources from the Iran-backed group told Reuters.

The news agency reported the sources saying: “As soon as we got word of the ceasefire we applied it from our end.”

Several other media outlets including AP, AFP and the Times of Israel have cited sources confirming the ceasefire in Lebanon, which was reportedly mediated by Qatar, Iran and the US.

Donald Trump has defended his deal to end the war with Iran as more details of the memorandum of understanding have been made public. So what does Iran get out of it, and can the US really claim this as a win? The Guardian’s global affairs correspondent, Andrew Roth, explains:

Donald Trump has again defended his deal with Iran in a series of posts on Truth Social, hitting out at critics who believe the memorandum of understanding signed on Wednesday is more generous to Tehran than Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal.

Trump wrote:

The War has diminished Iran! It doesn’t, any longer, have an Air Force, a Navy, Antiaircraft Equipment, Radar, or practically anything else, and yet the Dumocrats say that Iran is better off now than it was four months ago. Can you imagine getting away with that??? How stupid can some people be???”

He added:

We didn’t meet out of desperation, Iran did. They are FINISHED! We’ll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!”

Reuters has issued an alert saying Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire starting today at 4pm local time, according to a senior US official.

The news agency reported the following:

“Hezbollah and ‌Israel have agreed ‌to a ceasefire,” the official said on background, adding that negotiators ‌for the US and Qataris worked ​out the deal with help from Iran.

“We understand ⁠that after the ​exchange of ​fire ​earlier today, Israel and ​Hezbollah ‌are ​now ​in a ceasefire.”

We will bring you more as we get it.

The president of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, condemned Israel’s attacks in his country as “a dangerous and reprehensible escalation”.

In a statement issued by the Lebanese presidency, Aoun said the Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon “effectively undermine all ongoing attempts to consolidate the ceasefire and end the war”.

The statement said:

What we are witnessing today in the south and the Bekaa – an escalation of Israeli attacks and further killing and destruction – constitutes a dangerous and reprehensible escalation, particularly as it has affected dozens of innocent people, including women and children, and effectively undermines all ongoing attempts to consolidate the ceasefire and end the war, particularly following the recent developments between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

However, this will not prevent us from working to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire as soon as possible; this is what I have recommended to the Lebanese negotiating delegation for the forthcoming round of talks in Washington. There can be no compromise on this issue, as a comprehensive ceasefire is the prerequisite for discussing other matters, the most important of which are the Israeli withdrawal, the deployment of the army and the return of prisoners.”

Meanwhile, a new transatlantic drama is emerging in Italy, after US president Donald Trump told an Italian broadcaster that prime minister Giorgia Meloni “begged” him for a picture on the sidelines of the G7 summit earlier this week.

Talking to the La7 broadcaster, Trump reportedly said:

She begged me to take a picture with her! She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”

Extraordinarily, Meloni immediately took to social media to respond, posting a short video clip and saying “neither I nor Italy ever beg” anyone for anything.

The Italian PM said she was “astonished” by “completely made up” claims by Trump.

I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves like this towards his allies: it is not the first time. I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the ⁠West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far ​greater indulgence.”

Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani also cancelled his planned trip to the US in response.

“The serious and offensive words of president Trump towards prime minister Giorgia Meloni offend all of Italy. For this reason, I have decided to cancel my visit to the United States scheduled for the next 21 and 22 June,” he said on X.

Read more on our Europe live blog here:

According to CNN, the US has “relayed” to Iran that Israel will not further escalate attacks in Lebanon – according to sources who are close to the situation.

The unnamed source told the outlet: “Hezbollah violated the ceasefire. Israel has agreed to let it be, which was relayed to the Iranians, and it’s up to Hezbollah to stop.”

This comes after Israel carried out a wave of deadly strikes in Lebanon on Friday in response to Hezbollah attack that killed four soldiers in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has said it will “defend” Lebanon’s territory and people against Israeli attacks, and has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement which came into place in April.

“The Islamic Resistance will remain vigilant against any aggression. Its fighters will defend their land and people,” the group said in a statement. It then said “the enemy has never complied with any ceasefire agreement”, after rejecting Israel’s claims that they had been the ones to violate the truce.

This comes after earlier this morning Lebanon’s state-run National news agency has said at least 16 people have been killed in the Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, which Israel’s military said were ongoing, while Hezbollah said there was intense fighting in the area.

Here are some of the latest images from the Middle East on the newswires:

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a message of condolence following the deaths of four Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, as he vowed revenge against Hezbollah.

In a statement on social media, he confirmed one of the soldiers killed as Lt Col Dor Gadliah Ben Simhon, while the names of the other three have yet to be released.

“May their blood be avenged, and I wish a full recovery to the wounded in yesterday’s exchange of fire,” he said.

“Following the heinous attack by Hezbollah, which was a blatant violation of the ceasefire, I instructed the IDF last night to strike Hezbollah with full force.”

He added:

My directive is clear: Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks.

The IDF will act to thwart any threat to our forces and our territory.

As I made unequivocally clear, including yesterday: Israel will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon for as long as necessary to protect the settlements in the north.”

The IDF’s so-called “security zone” stretches 10km (more than 6 miles) into Lebanese territory from the northern Israeli border, where it has forced thousands of people to flee their homes in mass “evacuation” orders.

Donald Trump has repeated his view that if it weren’t for him “Israel would not exist today”.

He made the remarks to American news outlet Axios, which has released snippets of a 45-minute interview with the US president that has yet to be broadcast.

“If it weren’t for me, Israel would not exist today,” Trump said, adding that his relationship with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “good, but we have to keep him a little bit sane”.

He made a similar statement earlier this week at the G7 summit in France. “Without me, there would be no Israel, because no other president was willing to do what I did,” he said in pointed remarks aimed at the country amid its ongoing attacks on Lebanon.

Speaking to Axios, Trump also named China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi as the world leaders he most admires, describing them as “all business” and “a very tough cookie”, respectively.

The IDF said it struck more than 80 Hezbollah targets in southern Israel and killed “dozens” of its fighters.

The Israeli military said the overnight strikes centred on the southern city of Nabatiyeh, which falls within its recently expanded so-called “security zone” in Lebanon where its troops are operating in, about six miles from the northern Israeli border.

Images on the newswires show Israel’s air defence systems intercepting projectiles launched from Lebanon: