Middle East crisis live: Trump warns Iran to comply with ‘real agreement’ as ceasefire in doubt over Israeli attacks on Lebanon | US-Israel war on Iran

The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia have held a phone call today, in what the AFP news agency reported is the first official contact between the countries since the start of the war.

The Saudi ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement on X that the country’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, received a call from the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

The statement said: “During the call, they reviewed the latest developments and discussed ways to reduce tensions to restore security and stability in the region.”

It does not say when the officials spoke, but the statement was issued a day after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the US.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed to have killed the nephew and secretary of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem in yesterday’s strikes in Beirut.

In a post on Telegram, the IDF said:

Yesterday (Wednesday), the IDF struck in the Beirut area and eliminated Ali Yusuf Harshi, the personal secretary and nephew of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem.

Harshi was a close associate and personal advisor to Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem and played a central role in managing and securing his office.

Hezbollah has not immediately commented on the claim.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, has accused Israel of a “surprise attack” on Lebanon, saying it constituted a “grave violation” of the ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran.

“It was a sort of genocide, you know, by the regime of Israel in Lebanon, just immediately after the ceasefire was accepted,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

“It is a type of practice that the Israeli regime has always done: accepting ceasefire, then surprise attack, massacring.”

He added that the US “must choose between war and ceasefire”, saying: “They cannot have both at the same time.”

He continued: “If president Trump … is interested in peace for the whole Middle East, and since Iran is committed to that, we ask everybody in the Middle East to be abided by this agreement and this ceasefire that we reached with Americans, and we expect Americans do the same with its ally, the Israeli regime.”

UK prime minister Keir Starmer has arrived in the UAE on the second leg of his tour in the Middle East.

Starmer is meeting with allies in the Gulf region as part of ongoing talks to give shipping the confidence to pass through the strait of Hormuz.

The prime minister was in Saudi Arabia yesterday, where he met with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and visited an airbase. Starmer said there was still work to do to ensure the US-Iran ceasefire was “not a temporary ceasefire but a permanent ceasefire”.

Despite the recently agreed ceasefire, the energy crisis triggered by the war continues to reverberate across Asia.

In the Philippines, agriculture officials have warned of possible losses of P75 billion (US$1.2bn) if the government doesn’t give support to help rice and corn farmers, and fishers cope with the soaring cost of fuel. Farmers in some areas have been forced to let produce rot in their fields because the cost of harvesting and transporting goods has risen so sharply.

Officials are continuing to take steps to conserve energy and protect consumers. On Wednesday, officials in Lapu Lapu, in the Philippines’ Central Visayas region, signed an order introducing a four-day week for many government workers.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, appears to have deleted a post on X in which he said an Iranian delegation is set to arrive in Islamabad tonight for negotiations with the US.

As we reported earlier, Moghadam had posted: “Despite skepticism of Iranian public opinion due to repeated ceasefire violations by Israeli regime … Iranian delegation arrives tonight in Islamabad for serious talks based on 10 points proposed by Iran.”

That post no longer appears on his X account.

The French Le Monde newspaper has reported further comments from Jean-Noël Barrot on France Inter, in which he castigated the Israeli government over its continued strikes on Lebanon.

“Iran must stop terrorising Israel through Hezbollah, which must be disarmed immediately,” he said.

“Lebanon must not be made the scapegoat by a disgruntled government simply because a ceasefire has been reached between the United States and Iran.

He described the ceasefire as “temporary” and “very fragile”, adding: “The destruction of Lebanon, of the Lebanese state, will not destroy Hezbollah; on the contrary, it would strengthen it.”

Barrot said his country has joined the national day of mourning declared today in Lebanon.

The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has also condemned the Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

“These attacks are all the more unacceptable as they undermine the temporary ceasefire reached yesterday between the United States and Iran,” he told France Inter radio, according to the AFP news agency.

UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said Israel’s continued strikes on Lebanon was “deeply damaging” and risked destabilising the ceasefire between the US and Iran.

“We want to see Lebanon included in the ceasefire,” she told Times Radio this morning.

“We want it extended to cover Lebanon, because otherwise that will destabilise the whole region.

“That escalation that we saw from Israel yesterday was deeply damaging, and we want to see an end to hostilities.“

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed to have killed “dozens” of Hezbollah fighters in its “expanded” ground military operation in southern Lebanon over the past week.

In a series of posts on X, the IDF said its forces have operational control of the area and will continue to strike what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure.

The Lebanese civil defence service said at least 254 people were killed in the Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon yesterday, and more than 1,100 others were wounded.

Here are the latest images coming from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

In case you’re just joining us, here’s the latest developments. It is now 9.30am in Tehran, 9am in Jerusalem and 2am in Washington DC.

• Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it fired rockets at northern Israel in its first attack against Israel since the US reached a two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran. Hezbollah said in a statement that its attack came in response to what it described as Israeli ceasefire violations.

• Israel’s strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday killed at least 254 people and wounded over 1,100 others, the country’s civil defence service said.

• The Israeli strikes raised questions about regional truce efforts, with Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, saying a ceasefire in Lebanon was an essential condition of Iran’s agreement with the US.

• Fears that the ceasefire could fall apart saw West Texas Intermediate oil jump around 3% Thursday, having plunged more than 16% the day before. The price of Brent was up more than 2% following a 13% drop.

• Iran announced alternative routes for ships travelling through the strait of Hormuz, citing the risk of sea mines in the main zone of the vital waterway. The statement shared instructions for an alternative entry and exit route through the strait.

• Donald Trump said US ships, aircraft and soldiers will remain around Iran and threatened that the US will start “shooting” again unless Tehran fully complies with the deal reached with Washington. “If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before,” Trump wrote in a late night Truth Social post.

• UN secretary-general António Guterres condemned yesterday’s deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon, saying they pose “a grave risk to the ceasefire and the efforts toward a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region,” Guterres’s spokesperson said in a statement.

If you’re wondering how Pakistan brokered the two-week ceasefire deal and the looming US-Iran talks in Islamabad, Hannah Ellis-Peterson and Shah Meer Baloch have laid out the details for you in this fascinating piece.

An Iranian delegation will arrive in Islamabad on Thursday night for talks to resolve conflict with the US and Israel, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan said on Thursday.

“Despite skepticism of Iranian public opinion due to repeated ceasefire violations by Israeli regime … Iranian delegation arrives tonight in Islamabad for serious talks based on 10 points proposed by Iran,” ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam said in a post on X.

A little earlier (close to midnight in Washington DC), Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that US forces would remain stationed in the region until a “real agreement” is reached.

While he said a deal falling through was “highly unlikely,” Trump threatened to revert to “bigger, and better, and stronger” strikes if an agreement was not reached.

“In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!” he wrote.