ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that Israeli strikes in Lebanon violate the ceasefire agreement brokered with the United States, which he said covers “all fronts,” warning of potential “consequences.” This as media affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported that Tehran was suspending indirect communications with Washington until Tel Aviv halts its escalation on the Lebanese front.
“The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon,” Araghchi said in a post on X, warning that “its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts” and that “the US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation.”
The statement by Iran’s top diplomat and senior negotiator with Washington coincided with reports by IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency that Iran had suspended its engagement with Pakistani mediators involved in the peace talks with the United States.
Tasnim reported that “Iran halted its messaging” with the US “in protest of the Zionist [Israeli] crimes” in Lebanon, while noting the “resolve of Iran's Armed Forces and all resistance front axes to respond” and to “open new fronts” to ease pressure on their allies from the Hezbollah Movement in Lebanon.
The outlet further detailed that the measures that may be adopted by Tehran and its allies in the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ may include “the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” as well as the “Bab al-Mandeb Strait” by the Ansarullah Movement in Yemen - widely known as the Houthis - “to punish the Zionists [Israelis] and their supporters,” Tasnim said.
Tehran is now demanding the “immediate cessation” of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon and its withdrawal from areas it has advanced into in southern Lebanon as a precondition for resuming talks with the US, the outlet added.
The US and Israel launched a large-scale aerial campaign against Iran in late February, striking thousands of targets across the country during six weeks of hostilities.
In response, Iran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
The Iranian response has also included strikes by factions aligned with the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’, including Hezbollah, which in early March launched an initial attack on northern Israel that was followed by hundreds of Israeli air raids on what it said were targets across Lebanon.
Iran and the US agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8, halting fighting to allow space for talks. While the first round of talks concluded without a final agreement on April 11, a second round has yet to take place.
Simultaneously, US-brokered peace talks between Israel and Lebanon opened in Washington in mid-April, marking the first high-level contact between the two countries since 1993 and leading to a 10-day ceasefire.
A second round followed in late April, and a third in mid-May, during which both sides agreed on a negotiating framework and a 45-day ceasefire extension. However, despite the Israel-Hezbollah truce in Lebanon formally beginning on April 17, it has yet to be observed, with both sides violating it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday issued a joint statement saying they ordered strikes on Beirut's densely populated southern suburb, widely known as Dahiyeh.
"In light of the repeated violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon by the terrorist Hezbollah organization and the attacks on our cities and citizens,” the Israeli forces have been instructed to “strike terror targets in Dahiyeh,” the statement said.
Israel has also pursued a ground offensive into southern Lebanon, raising its flag over a medieval castle, the Beaufort, which served as an Israeli base during its two-decade occupation of Lebanese territory in the 1980s and 1990s.
The latest developments come despite US President Donald Trump saying in a Saturday interview with Fox News, “We're close to a very good deal [with Iran],” while at the same time warning that “if we don't get what we want, we're going to end it a different way.”
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