Israel and Lebanon extend ceasefire as Trump seeks ‘best’ Iran deal

A fragile truce in the Middle East was given more time on Thursday after Israel and Lebanon agreed at the White House to extend their ceasefire by three weeks, while US President Donald Trump signalled he was willing to hold out for what he called “the best deal” to ⁠end his conflict with Iran.

Mr Trump brought together Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, and Lebanon’s ambassador to the US, Nada Moawad, in the Oval Office for a second round of talks mediated by the United States.

“The Meeting went very well! The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He said he also expected to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to Washington in the near future.

A building is damaged in the Ain al-Mreisseh neighbourhood following Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon

Speaking at the White House, Mr Trump said he was not hurrying toward a peace accord, insisting he wanted any settlement to last, even as he maintained the US held a decisive advantage in the naval confrontation in the Strait.

A day after Iran showcased its tightened hold over the strategic shipping route, President Trump brushed aside the danger from Iran’s “little wise-guy ships” and said he believed internal upheaval among Iran’s leaders was preventing a deal.

Yesterday, he said the US Navy had been instructed to strike Iranian boats laying mines in the strait and said the US could wipe out within a day any weapons refurbishment Iran may have carried out during a ceasefire that has been in place since 8 April.

But ‌navigation through the waterway remained effectively shut, and the ⁠Iranian seizure of two massive cargo vessels underscored how difficult it has been for the US to assert control of the strait. Iran, meanwhile, continued to roil oil markets and add fresh pressure to the global economy.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei yesterday pushed back on Mr Trump’s assertion that the leadership was in disarray, calling it “the enemy’s media operations” aimed at damaging Iranian unity and security.

Workers clear debris from a building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon

“Unity will become stronger and more solid, and enemies will become weaker and more humiliated,” he said in a post on X, as he remained out of the ‌public eye since succeeding his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US strikes in the opening days of the war that began on 28 February.

Mr Trump said this week he would indefinitely prolong what had originally been a two-week ⁠ceasefire with Iran to make room for more peace talks, which have not yet been scheduled.

“Don’t rush me,” he said when asked how long he was prepared to wait ‌ for a long-term peace deal. “I want to make the best deal. I want to have it everlasting.”

He also ruled out the ⁠use of nuclear weapons, ‌telling reporters there was no need because the US had “decimated” Iran using conventional arms.

“No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody,” Mr Trump said when asked by a reporter at the White House.

Even with the ceasefire extension, violence persisted in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces kept striking Hezbollah targets after some of the deadliest days since the two sides’ earlier agreement to ⁠halt fighting on 16 April.

The Israeli military said yesterday it killed two armed individuals in southern Lebanon after spotting them moving toward soldiers and posing what it described as ⁠an immediate threat.

Among those killed in Israeli strikes this week was Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, according to a senior Lebanese military official and her employer, Al-Akhbar newspaper.

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Hezbollah said it carried out four operations in south Lebanon on Wednesday in retaliation for Israeli strikes. The group did not take part in the ceasefire talks in Washington.

Israel has tried to align itself with Lebanon’s government against Hezbollah, the group founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and one that Lebanon has been trying to disarm peacefully for the past year.

Separately, before the announcement in the US yesterday, Israel warned that it stood ready to resume attacks on Iran.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel was awaiting a “green light” from the US ‌to restart the war, adding that if it did so, it would begin by targeting Mr Khamenei and “return Iran to a dark age.”