“We will continue to strike the Hezbollah terrorist organization and use all operational opportunities,” the Israeli military said in messages on X, saying its strikes targeted “Hezbollah headquarters, military formations and command and control centers” in Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Israel was ignoring “all regional and international efforts to end the war”, including targeting “densely populated residential areas”.
Israel had “violated the principles of international law and international humanitarian law” with its attacks, he said.
Israel invaded Lebanon after Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for the war in Iran. Israeli forces have vowed to establish a “security zone” in southern Lebanon, destroying homes throughout the region, as well as bridges over the Litani River, which connect the south to the rest of Lebanon.
More than 1,500 people were killed in the Israeli attack, according to Lebanese government figures, while more than a million people were displaced from their homes by Israeli bombing and military evacuation orders. Israel has warned that displaced people from the south will not be able to return until the safety of Israelis in northern Israel is guaranteed.
Iranian authorities have not released a recent death toll, but the U.S.-based human rights group HRANA puts the total death toll at nearly 3,400, including more than 1,600 civilians. More than 1,500 people were killed in Lebanon and 23 died in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed and two others died for non-combat reasons.
Who negotiated the deal?Pakistan and Egypt played key roles in facilitating negotiations between the United States and Iran, with Araghchi expressing “gratitude and appreciation” to Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief, “for their tireless efforts to end the war in the region.”
Trump told the Agence France-Presse news agency that he believed China also played a central role in persuading Iran to negotiate.
“I hear yes,” Trump responded after being asked about Beijing’s involvement in bringing its ally Tehran to the negotiating table. Trump is expected to travel to China in mid-May to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, after postponing the trip due to the war in Iran.
Sharif also credited China, along with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, for their “invaluable” support in efforts to achieve a temporary ceasefire, in an article on X on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, last year.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images fileBeijing is a close ally of Tehran, as well as the main buyer of Iranian oil, but it has condemned Iran’s attacks on Gulf countries, with which it also has significant economic ties.
What’s next?The coming days will be crucial in determining whether the ceasefire will hold and whether a more lasting deal can be negotiated to end the war that has ravaged the region and threatened global economic pain.
Pakistan and Iran have both said negotiations for a lasting peace deal will begin in Islamabad on Friday. The United States has yet to confirm this.
Meanwhile, the United States and Iran have claimed victory.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked at a news conference Wednesday whether a future U.S. deal with Iran would involve his government handing over all its enriched uranium.
He said the material is currently “buried” and the United States is “monitoring” it.
“We know exactly what they have, and they know it, and they will either give it to us, as the president has indicated – they will give it to us voluntarily, we will get it, we will take it, we will take it out – or if we have to do something else ourselves, like we did at Midnight Hammer or something like that, we reserve that opportunity,” Hegseth said, referring to the U.S. attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities last June.
One of Iran’s demands to end the war is the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from “all bases and positions in the region.” This demand would almost certainly be doomed to failure for the United States.
Hegseth said Wednesday that U.S. forces would “remain” in the region amid the ceasefire to ensure the ceasefire is respected.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he said.
Trump celebrated the deal in a post on Truth Social as a “great day for world peace,” just hours after threatening to annihilate the Iranian population.
“This could be the golden age of the Middle East,” he said.
A resident looks out the window of his damaged house after Israeli-US strikes in Tehran on Tuesday.AFP via Getty Images
