Israel has undermined a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran by bombing targets across Lebanon, which provoked Iran to reclose the Strait of Hormuz hours after opening the waterway under the terms of the temporary peace pact.
President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire last night on Truth Social, and the White House announced today that Vice President J.D. Vance will head to Pakistan, which brokered the agreement, for peace talks this weekend.
Joe Kent, who resigned his position as National Counterterrorism Director because of the attack on Iran, warned that the president must restrain Israel by removing their U.S.-provided military capability.
Ceasefire
Trump disclosed the ceasefire on Truth Social.
“[S]ubject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” Trump wrote:
This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.
Hours later, he confidently predicted good things to come:
A big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else! The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made.
Israel, apparently, didn’t see it that way. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “our finger is on the trigger. … This is not the end of the war.” That finger, apparently, pulled the trigger.
“Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, even as the Iran-aligned group paused attacks on northern Israel and Israeli troops in Lebanon under a two-week U.S.-Iran ceasefire,” Reuters reported:
Consecutive explosions shook Beirut, sending smoke billowing across the capital, as Israel’s military said it had launched the largest coordinated strike of the war. More than 100 Hezbollah command centres and military sites were targeted in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, it said.
Strait Closed Again?
Today, multiple news reports averred that Iran reclosed the strait.
“Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday in response one of Israel’s deadliest attacks on Lebanon, Iranian state media reported, suddenly casting doubt over the ceasefire agreement brokered with the U.S. less than a day before, though the White House said reports the strait had been closed were ‘false,’” Forbes reported:
[The Islamic Republic News Agency] reported that the strait was closed “in the wake of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon,” and various reports describe Israel’s attacks Wednesday as one of the deadliest in the war so far, leaving 112 dead and as many as 800 injured.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said … “it has been relayed to [Trump] privately” that the strait remains open “and these reports publicly are false.”
She added that it would be “completely unacceptable” if the strait were closed.
Whatever the case, The Wall Street Journal disclosed that Iranian mediators said the country’s participation in talks depends upon a ceasefire that includes Lebanon, “warning it might also reverse its decision on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, people familiar with the matter said.”
The mediators also said Iran would continue attacking Israel and other nations in the region if Israel continues shelling Lebanon.
“The Israeli military said that while it agreed to a cease-fire against Iran, its ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon would continue,” the Journal reported:
Mediators on Wednesday were racing to firm up last-minute details for a meeting between Iran and the U.S. as soon as Friday.
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald accused Israel of purposely wrecking the ceasefire.
“Who would have ever guessed that Israel would instantly sabotage the US/Iran deal by — 12 hours after it’s announced — committing one of the most horrific atrocities you’ll see in its monstrous bombing of Beirut and other areas of Lebanon, killing dozens and probably hundreds?” he wrote on X.
Restraining Israel
The attack came after the Trump administration’s former counterterrorism chief, Joe Kent, warned that Israel must be restrained if the ceasefire is to be successful. “It’s absolutely essential that we ensure that the Israelis do not sabotage this to two-week ceasefire, or eventually, the lasting peace that we’re trying to achieve with the Iranians,” he said.
Kent worries that the Israelis will do “what they have done in past negotiations, in targeting the negotiators or taking a series of strikes that escalates the conflict.”
The U.S. must remove military support from Israel, he said:
We have to take away enough from them that they simply cannot go on the offense. … It’s absolutely critical that we take this step and don’t just take Israel’s word for it that they agree to the ceasefire, simply because they have a very bad track record of adhering to these deals.
Kent said that Israel’s strategic objective — regime change in Iran — differs from that of the United States, and “there is no military solution to the conflict right now.”
Vance will lead U.S. negotiators to Pakistan this weekend for talks that will begin Saturday morning.
Joining Vance will be special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House advisor Jared Kushner.
