DUBAI: Israel pounded Lebanon with its heaviest strikes yet on Wednesday (Apr 8), killing hundreds of people and drawing a threat of retaliation from Iran, which suggested it would be “unreasonable” to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace deal with the United States.
The warning from Iran’s lead negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bager Qalibaf, laid bare the continued volatility in the region following Tuesday’s ceasefire announcement by President Donald Trump. The two sides have laid out sharply contrasting agendas for peace talks set to start on Saturday, but it was unclear whether the two-week ceasefire would hold until then.
Qalibaf said Israel had already violated several conditions of that ceasefire by ramping up its parallel war against the Iran-aligned militia Hezbollah, while the United States had violated the agreement by insisting that Iran abandon its nuclear ambitions.
“In such a situation, a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations were unreasonable,” he said in a statement.
Israel and the United States both said the two-week ceasefire did not cover Lebanon, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes would continue.
“I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t,” US Vice President JD Vance, who will lead the US delegation, told reporters in Budapest.
The two sides appeared to be far apart on Iran’s nuclear program as well – one of the factors that Trump cited as the basis for war.
Trump said Iran had agreed to stop enriching uranium, which can be turned into nuclear weapons, and the White House said Iran has indicated it would turn over its existing stocks.
“The United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried … Nuclear ‘Dust’,” Trump said on social media.
Qalibaf, however, said it was allowed to continue enriching uranium under the terms of the ceasefire.
Though both the United States and Iran declared victory in a five-week-old war that has killed thousands, their core disputes remained unresolved. Each side is sticking to competing demands for a deal that could shape the Middle East for generations.
Despite the uncertainty, world stock indexes surged while oil prices plunged 14 per cent to settle near US$95 per barrel, after falling as low as US$90.40.
Benchmark Brent crude remains roughly US$25 higher than before the joint US-Israel attacks began. Tehran’s newly demonstrated ability to cut off Gulf energy supplies through its grip on the strait, despite decades of massive US military investment in the region, shows how the conflict has already altered power dynamics in the Gulf.