Fate of peace deal unknown as Israeli attacks in Lebanon enrage Iran

President Trump on Sunday reiterated that the U.S. and Iran would sign a peace deal even as intense Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah enclaves in Lebanon threaten to hamper the tentative peace negotiations between the two nations.

In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump said that the Israel military’s attack on the Beirut suburb of Dahiya should not have happened “particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran.”

He clarified that Israel has the right to defend itself and respond to missile and drone attacks from Hezbollah, but that “the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process.”

“We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should stand down. 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!” Mr. Trump wrote.

Despite his frustration at Israel’s strikes, Mr. Trump told Axios on Sunday afternoon that he still expects a peace deal with Iran to be imminent.

The Israeli military said it launched attacks on Hezbollah infrastructure in Dahiya, a majority-Shia suburb of Beirut.

SEE ALSO: Trump urges restraint in Lebanon as peace deal hangs in the balance

Hezbollah has long maintained a strong presence in the neighborhood and the Israeli military has repeatedly bombed the area over the past 20 years.

While casualties from the strike are still unknown, Hezbollah commander Ali al-Hajj was reportedly killed by in the attack, according to a report from Al Arabiya.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a statement that the strikes were retaliation for a barrage of missiles and drones sent by Hezbollah earlier in the day. The Israeli military said its forces had detected three projectiles fired into northern Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah have been in active war since early March, when the Islamist guerrilla group fired rockets into northern Israel following the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28 in an Israeli airstrike.

While the U.S. has mediated an official ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah has not participated in any peace negotiations and has affirmed it will not respect the terms of a deal that does not include the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the southern part of Lebanon.

The renewed fighting could threaten the already sensitive peace talks between Iran and the U.S, which Mr. Trump says are in the final stages.

SEE ALSO: Obama ‘doubtful’ Trump’s Iran deal will be different than the one he signed in 2015

Tehran has repeatedly insisted that any peace agreement with Washington should include a full ceasefire across the region, including in Lebanon, where Israel has kept up a steady stream of attacks on Hezbollah’s positions.

The Israeli military last week launched similar strikes near Beirut, resulting in retaliatory attacks by Iran itself against the Jewish state.

Mr. Trump held a phone call with Mr. Netanyahu following the strikes in which he told the Israeli leader to hold off on further strikes in Lebanon or Iran as peace negotiations continued.

The Israeli military on Sunday said its commanders are conducting assessments and preparing for possible retaliatory attacks from Iran following the strikes on Dahiya. The military made similar comments before Iran launched retaliatory strikes last week.

Mohammad Baker Ghalibaff, one of Iran’s chief negotiators with Washington, said that Israel’s attacks on Dahiya will hamper the U.S.’s ability to achieve concessions during negotiations.

“By giving the green light to the regime, you cannot gain concessions. The game of bad cop and good cop is outdated,” he wrote on X. “If you lack the will and ability to fulfill your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible.”

Mr. Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday that the long-discussed peace deal with Iran would be signed on Sunday. The deal, Mr. Trump said, would automatically reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that Iran’s military has kept effectively closed since March.

But Esmail Baghaei, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said while progress toward a deal has been made, no agreement would be signed Sunday.

Pakistani and Omani mediators have been attempting to broker a peace agreement between the U.S. and Iran for weeks, even as the April ceasefire agreement falters under attacks on commercial ships in the Gulf of Oman and Iranian strikes on U.S. military installations in the Arab Gulf states.

The tentative deal, dubbed a “memorandum of understanding” between the U.S. and Iran, would, according to officials on both sides, include the end of Washington’s blockade of Iran’s ports, a lifting of Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and a full ceasefire for 60 days.

During the ceasefire, Iran would agree to hold in-depth negotiations over its nuclear program and the removal of sanctions. The U.S. entered the war with Iran in late February by insisting that Iran could never obtain a nuclear weapon.

Mr. Trump has floated the idea of taking control of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium or otherwise diluting it below its current level. Washington has also called for Iran to abandon its nuclear program entirely, something Iran has refused to do during previous rounds of talks.

Iran has maintained that it does not have a nuclear weapon and does not seek to build one, but that it has the right under international law to enrich uranium for civilian use.

Nuclear watchdogs note that Iran has enriched uranium far beyond what would be useful for any purposes besides nuclear weapons.