Israel, Lebanon agree to implement ceasefire, boosting hopes for Iran deal

DUBAI - Israel and Lebanon agreed to implement a ceasefire to end hostilities, the Trump administration said on Wednesday, in a boost to hopes for a broader deal to end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Tehran, which had conditioned any deal with the U.S. in part on an end to fighting between Israel and Lebanon, earlier struck Kuwait, damaging its airport and injuring dozens, while the U.S. military carried out strikes near the Strait of Hormuz.

The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire is contingent on a complete cessation of fire from the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia and the evacuation of all its operatives from the South Litani Sector, a joint statement released by the U.S. State Department said following negotiations in Washington.

The two sides had agreed last month to a ceasefire but hostilities had continued. Israel invaded Lebanon in March in pursuit of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which fired across the border in support of Tehran.

The attacks on Kuwait and in the strait are the latest to test a shaky ceasefire between the U.S., Israel and Iran, sending oil prices up nearly 2%, as the strait remains largely closed more than three months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Flights at Kuwait International Airport were suspended after an Iranian drone and missile attack damaged airport facilities and diplomatic missions, killing one person and injuring more than 60 others, Kuwaiti authorities and state media said.

Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways later resumed flights after taking safety measures, the civil aviation authority said. 

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said they did not fire at Kuwait’s airport and blamed the destruction on U.S. interceptor missiles that failed to hit their targets, according to Iranian state media.

The U.S. military said that was not accurate, and that Iranian drones targeted the airport deliberately.

Earlier, Iranian media reported the Revolutionary Guards had attacked the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and a U.S. airbase, as well as a vessel identified as Panaya. U.S. Central Command denied its bases had been hit and said Iranian ballistic missiles failed to strike their targets in the region.

CENTCOM said it had carried out a new round of “defensive strikes” in southern Iran, targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats seeking to lay mines, and conducted strikes on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz after attempted Iranian attacks.

Ceasefire strained by flare-ups

Since the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, Tehran has repeatedly attacked targets in the Gulf region, home to U.S. military bases.

Hostilities have periodically flared up in recent weeks despite a ceasefire agreed in early April, as the U.S. has pushed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which handled roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before the war.

Last week, Iran and the U.S. signaled progress towards a tentative initial agreement to halt the war and reopen the strait, but the two sides have yet to sign off on the deal, which would leave more complex negotiations for later. 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen on Wednesday that talks had not been cut off but no progress had been made.

In addition to Tehran conditioning a deal on an end to fighting in Lebanon, it also wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers on sanctions on crude exports, a lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and continued leverage over the strait.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who is under pressure to bring down fuel prices, has said his top priority is to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran says its atomic program is for peaceful purposes. In a podcast interview released on Wednesday, Trump said Iran had agreed not to have a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei was involved in negotiations.

Later on Wednesday, Trump suggested there could be progress in negotiations with Iran as soon as this weekend.

“If it happens, it could happen over the weekend,” Trump told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office, without elaborating on what he expected to happen within that timeframe. 

Trump said that parties were working to separate the issue of reopening the strait from the conflict in Lebanon. 

The president told aides privately that he would consider ending the ceasefire with Iran if Tehran kills American troops, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing U.S. officials. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Israel keeps up strikes on Lebanon

The war has killed thousands, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, while causing global economic pain by severely disrupting energy supplies and other shipping.

It also sparked the latest round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

On Wednesday, Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and targeted a car just south of Beirut, Lebanese security sources said, while Israel said it intercepted a hostile aircraft likely fired by Hezbollah.

Araqchi said Iran would respond decisively if Israel attacks Beirut.

In his podcast comments, Trump acknowledged having called Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “crazy” during a reportedly expletive-filled phone exchange over the fighting in Lebanon as he sought a deal over the wider war. 

“At some point, I said, Bibi, we’ve got to stop this. We got to stop it,” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

Netanyahu told CNBC in an interview that he and Trump sometimes had “tactical disagreements” but that they agreed on the main issues concerning Iran. 

Trump to attend NATO gathering

Trump will attend the NATO meeting of heads of state that is taking place in Turkey in early July, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, providing a confirmation that will likely lead to a sigh of relief across the capitals of the alliance.

While American presidents almost always attend NATO summits given Washington is the leader of the alliance, questions were raised about Trump’s attendance this year as he repeatedly expressed his anger with NATO over what he described as its reluctance to help the United States with the war in Iran.

Speaking at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Rubio touched upon Trump’s frustrations, saying his main irritation was some members not allowing the U.S. to use the military bases in those countries at a time of crisis.

Despite his disappointment with the alliance, Trump will still be attending the gathering, Rubio told lawmakers.

“The United States is still in the NATO alliance, and we’ll be there in Turkey to talk about all these topics. The president himself will be attending the next NATO meeting of heads of state, where all these points will be made clear,” Rubio said.

Several NATO countries resisted supporting the U.S. military campaign against Iran by denying U.S. military planes use of their airspace or declining to send naval forces to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz for energy tankers.

European leaders have rejected direct involvement in U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran, wary of getting sucked into an unpredictable conflict whose aims they do not fully understand and that is unpopular with their own citizens.

Trump has repeatedly called NATO a “paper tiger” and threatened to withdraw from the 32-member transatlantic alliance earlier this year, arguing that Washington’s European allies have relied on U.S. security guarantees while providing inadequate support for the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran.

“I think the next meeting of NATO in Turkey in July is probably the most important meeting in NATO’s history, because there are some things here that need to be cleared up and fixed,” Rubio said.

The frequency of NATO summits has varied over the alliance’s 77-year history, but its leaders have met every summer since 2021 and will gather this year in the Turkish capital Ankara on July 7 and 8.

Reuters reported in late April that the alliance was considering ending its recent practice of holding annual summits in the future, partly to help avoid a potentially tense encounter with Trump during his final year in office in 2028.

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.