ISLAMABAD: United States (US) President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Israel and Iran not to “blow” a potential peace deal to end the Middle East war that Washington says is close to finalization, after Israeli airstrikes on Beirut prompted Tehran to question whether it would proceed with the deal and raised fears of renewed regional escalation.
Israel’s military said it launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Sunday, potentially complicating efforts to finalize the peace deal to end the US-Iran war, which began in late Feb.
The conflict has disrupted global energy and cargo supplies through the Strait of Hormuz and has seen Tehran attack Israel as well as US and other commercial infrastructure in the region.
Smoke rose over the Lebanese capital after the Israeli strikes on Sunday, and the health ministry said three people were killed and 16 others wounded. Iran threatened a military response.
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump said in a social media post.
“There should be no more attacks by Israel anywhere in Lebanon, but there should also be no more attacks by any other party, including Hezbollah, against Israel. This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!“
The deal in its current form is a deep disappointment to Israel’s government, which has been sidelined in negotiations led by Pakistan and others. The last time Israel struck the Beirut suburbs a week ago, it set off the most serious escalation in fighting between Iran and Israel since the tenuous ceasefire took hold on April 8.
Trump, who earlier said the deal could be signed on Sunday, has pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop hitting Lebanon while a deal is near, but the prime minister has defied him.
Netanyahu’s office said the strikes were in response to Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel. There was no immediate comment from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
“Israel will not tolerate firing into its territory,” Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
Trump described the attack on northern Israel as “very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process.”
Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel on March 2, two days after the US and Israel attacked Iran, sparking war in the Middle East. Israeli troops have since pushed their invasion of Lebanon deeper than at any point in over a quarter century.
Iran wants a ceasefire deal to include the fighting in Lebanon. It’s unclear whether that would mean Israeli forces’ withdrawal and when. Most of Hezbollah’s attacks in recent weeks have targeted Israeli troops inside Lebanon.
In a post on X, Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a lead negotiator for Tehran, warned the US after Israel’s strikes that “if you lack the will and ability to fulfill your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday the deal would be signed Sunday, while Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said it could happen in the coming days.
Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran on Sunday to finalize the agreement, according to two regional officials.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, expressed cautious optimism that the US and Iran were finally approaching a deal that could halt hostilities that have killed thousands of people and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has thrown world markets into disarray.
The deal does not solve the thorniest issues between the US and Iran, including Iran’s nuclear program or its billions of dollars in frozen funds, but offers a 60-day framework for technical discussions on those issues, AP reported, citing Pakistani and regional officials familiar with the ongoing negotiations.
Under the deal being discussed, US and Israel appear to have fallen short of their original goals of destroying Iran’s missile and nuclear programs and ending its support for armed proxies in the region. It is not clear how the deal will address these issues, or if they will be part of the final agreement.
Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful and has not publicly committed to giving up the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under three nuclear sites that were badly damaged by US strikes last year.
— With input from wire services.
