This blog has now closed, but we are continuing our coverage of the ongoing situation in the Middle East – and more information on the US-Iran eleventh-hour ceasefire – here. Thanks for following along.
Independent analysts say they have seen no change in traffic through the strait of Hormuz. That’s despite claims from the White House on Wednesday there had been an uptick in the number of ships transiting the strategic waterway since a US-announced ceasefire with Iran.
Windward, a maritime intelligence firm that tracks international shipping, said only 11 vessels transited the strait on Wednesday – about the same number from prior days.
Windward said all ships transiting the strait must still coordinate safe passage with Iranian authorities, who are requiring shippers to pay hefty tolls of up to $1 a barrel for outbound oil, paid in cryptocurrency. For context, the largest supertankers carry up to 3 million barrels of crude.
Windward said radio broadcasts from Iran to tankers in the Gulf on Wednesday warned that those transiting without approval would be attacked.
1.1 million Lebanese displaced since war started, says UN
The United Nations says 1.1 million Lebanese have been displaced since early March.
And that number, representing nearly one-fifth of Lebanon’s population, is expected to rise following the wave of over 100 Israeli airstrikes on the country on Wednesday, the UN humanitarian chief in Lebanon said.
Imran Riza told UN correspondents in a video briefing that Israeli orders for Lebanese to leave their homes now affect 15.5% of the country’s territory.
He also pointed to rising attacks on healthcare facilities during the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, with over 106 incidents reported resulting in 57 deaths and 158 injuries.
Updated
During those heavy Israeli strikes on Wednesday, Israel also struck the last remaining bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, a senior Lebanese security source said, as per Reuters.
The bridge ran over the Litani River, which runs about 30km (20 miles) north of the border with Israel. An Israeli military spokesperson said the area south of the Litani was “disconnected from Lebanon”.
Israel has said it intends to occupy the area as a “buffer zone”. It has struck hospitals and power stations there, and thousands of Lebanese civilians still living there say they have been struggling with a shortage of food and medicine.
William Christou, in Beirut, reported earlier in the war about Israel’s desire for a buffer zone in that area.
In case you missed it earlier, here’s some excellent analysis from our senior international correspondent, Peter Beaumont, who writes that Benjamin Netanyahu looks to be the biggest loser in this war.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it has 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, after Israel launched its biggest attack on Lebanon in this war on Wednesday, killing at least 254 people, according to Lebanese officials.
Israel has not commented on the reports of Hezbollah rockets. It has just ticked past 4am on Thursday in Israel.
To recap, when the ceasefire deal was announced late on Tuesday, Pakistan’s prime minister, whose country served as a mediator, said in a social media post that it applied to “everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere”.
But Israel announced on Wednesday it did not consider Lebanon covered by the Iran-US truce. And the Trump administration on Wednesday also stated that Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire deal, with the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claiming “that has been relayed to all parties”.
US vice-president JD Vance also told reporters in Budapest that the US never promised to include Lebanon in the ceasefire.
Iran have insisted Lebanon is part of the ceasefire deal. France and Australia have both urged the same.
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Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel in response to 'ceasefire violations' – report
Reuters has reported Hezbollah says it fired rockets at northern Israel in response to “ceasefire violations”. We’ll update this news as we find out more.
As we reported earlier, Iran has 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.
Tehran has agreed to temporarily reopen the strait as part of a two-week truce, but Israel’s ongoing strikes on Lebanon are threatening that agreement.
“All ships intending to transit the Strait of Hormuz are hereby notified that in order to comply with the principles of maritime safety and to be protected from possible collisions with sea mines ... they should take alternative routes for traffic in the Strait of Hormuz,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement quoted by local media.
The statement shared instructions for an alternative entry and exit route through the strait.
Back to that Trump-Rutte meeting, Reuters is reporting some remarks from a Nato spokesperson.
The spokesperson said Rutte and Trump had a “frank” discussion on a range of issues related to shared security concerns. Rutte underscored the importance of allies continuing to step up to deliver a stronger, fairer alliance, they added.
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Red Cross 'outraged' as latest Israeli strikes kill at least 254 people in Lebanon
The Red Cross said it was “outraged by the devastating death and destruction” in densely populated areas across Lebanon as Israel launched a massive wave of attacks on Wednesday.
Heavy explosive weapons struck bustling neighbourhoods, including in Beirut, without effective advance warnings, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
“Many who had begun thinking of the moment when they might return to their homes have been rushing to streets and hospitals, searching for missing loved ones or seeking a safety that feels increasingly out of reach,” said Agnes Dhur, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Civil Defence said at least 254 people were killed and 1,165 others were wounded in the attacks on Wednesday.
Here are some of the images from those Israeli strikes.
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'Remember Greenland,' says Trump as he vents frustration with Nato
Further to that Trump-Rutte meeting and the US-Nato relationship, Trump has posted this on Truth Social just minutes ago:
NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!! President DJT.”
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Trump meets Nato leader amid musings US could pull out of alliance
Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, met behind closed doors with Donald Trump on Wednesday for discussions that were expected to focus on reopening the strait of Hormuz and soothing Trump’s anger with Nato over the Iran war.
It wasn’t immediately clear how things went in the private meeting, ahead of which Trump had suggested the US may consider leaving the trans-Atlantic alliance after Nato member countries ignored his call to help.
However, during an interview with CNN after the meeting, Rutte was asked if he believed Nato countries were tested and failed.
“Some of them yes, but a large majority of European countries, and that’s what we discussed today, have done what they promised before in a case like this,” he said.
“I was also able to point to the fact that the large majority of European nations has been helpful with basing, with logistics, with overflights, with making sure that they lift up to the commitments.”
Rutte said he had a “frank and open” discussion with Trump, where the US president expressed disappointment with America’s allies.
The White House did not immediately offer an update on the conversation.
But earlier Wednesday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, acknowledged that Trump had discussed leaving Nato. “I think it’s something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with secretary-general Rutte,” she said.
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Reuters is reporting that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy have posted a map showing alternative shipping routes in the strait of Hormuz to help transiting ships avoid naval mines, citing the semi-official Iranian news agency ISNA.
We’ll have more on this as it develops.
Australia has called for the ceasefire to apply to Lebanon and for both Hezbollah and Israel to observe the ceasefire. In a radio interview on Thursday morning, Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said:
If fighting continues in Lebanon, it risks the whole ceasefire across the region. So we called for that last night. We’ve been joined overnight by the G7 and other countries saying the same thing, and we continue to assert that.
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The online betting market Polymarket is back in the news, after a group of new accounts on the platform made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the US and Iran would reach a ceasefire on 7 April.
The bets resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for those users.
Analysis of blockchain data shows at least 50 wallets placed substantial “Yes” bets before Trump announced a two-week ceasefire on social media.
Polymarket labeled the ceasefire betting event as “disputed” due to ongoing tensions, which means some payouts are on hold. This pattern of strategic bets has raised questions about insider trading.
For more on Polymarket and the Middle East conflict, here’s this piece from Jillian Ambrose, our energy correspondent.
Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says it would be ‘completely unacceptable’ for ships to have to pay a fee to cross the strait of Hormuz.
Amid ceasefire talks, Tehran has proposed fees or tolls on vessels to safely pass through the strait. Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested the US and Iran could collect tolls in a joint venture, while the White House said the priority was reopening the strait without limitations.
Mitsotakis said the strait always had freedom of navigation and that needs to continue.
“I don’t think that the international community would be ready to accept Iran setting up a toll booth for every ship that crosses the strait,” Mitsotakis told CNN on Wednesday.
That seems to me to be completely unacceptable.
He said a separate international agreement regarding the strait may be necessary.
“But this agreement cannot, I repeat, cannot include a sort of a fee that ships will have to pay every time they cross the strait. This was not the case before the war started and it cannot be the case after the war finishes,” he said.
“We would be setting a very, very dangerous precedent, if that were to happen, for the freedom of navigation.”
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Ceasefire must include Lebanon to be 'credible and lasting', says Macron
Emmanuel Macron has said he has told the presidents of the US and Iran that their ceasefire deal should include Lebanon.
In a post on X, the French president said:
I spoke today with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, as well as with US President Donald Trump.
I told both of them that their decision to accept a ceasefire was the best possible one.
I expressed my hope that the ceasefire will be fully respected by each of the belligerents, across all areas of confrontation, including in Lebanon. This is a necessary condition for the ceasefire to be credible and lasting.
He said that this would “open the way to comprehensive negotiations” that lead to a long-term peace deal.
Macron pledged that “France will play its full part, in close coordination with its partners in the Middle East”, and said he had also discussed his position today with the leaders of Qatar, the UAE, Lebanon and Iraq.
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A tale of two ceasefires - the day so far
The fate of the fragile two-week ceasefire looks increasingly uncertain on Wednesday, with Washington and Tehran giving decidedly different versions of what was agreed.
Iran and Pakistan, which brokered the 11th-hour truce, have both asserted that the ceasefire included Lebanon. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, disagreed and Israeli forces unleashed their heaviest attack of the war so far on more than 100 targets, killing at least 254 people and injuring at least 1,165 across Lebanon. The scale of the killing and destruction amid Israel’s strikes on Lebanon is “horrific”, UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said – urging the international community to “bring an end to this nightmare”.
The United States is also denying that Lebanon was ever included in the deal. Iran’s IRGC warned it will deliver a “regret-inducing response” if strikes against Lebanon are not ended immediately, in a statement directed at “the oath-breaking” United States and Israel.
There have also been conflicting reports over the status of the critical strait of Hormuz, with Washington declaring it open with an “uptick” in traffic and stating that Donald Trump expects it to remain open “without limitations”, while Tehran said the route “remains closed”, and warned ships passing through the waterway without permission will be “targeted and destroyed”. Iran reportedly halted shipping traffic in the strait in retaliation for Israel’s continued strikes – allegedly targeting Hezbollah – in Lebanon.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that three key clauses of the hours-old ceasefire had already “openly and clearly violated” – including a ceasefire in Lebanon - ahead of planned negotiations, and described further talks as “unreasonable”. He said there had also been an intrusion into Iranian airspace and denial of Iran’s right to nuclear enrichment. “The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments - a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” he said on X.
In similar vein, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the US must choose between continued war via Israel or a ceasefire. In a post on social media, he said: “The Iran–U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
The Trump administration, meanwhile, stated that Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire deal, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claiming “that has been relayed to all parties”. US vice-president JD Vance also told reporters in Budapest that the US never promised to include Lebanon in the ceasefire, and that Iran may have been under that impression due to a “misunderstanding”. “I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding,” he said. “I think the Iranians thought the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise, we never indicated that was going to be the case.”
Leavitt also dismissed “misreporting” that Donald Trump is working from the original 10-point plan put forward by Tehran, and denied that Lebanon was ever included in the ceasefire deal. She said the 10-point plan presented in public by Iran was “literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump” – despite the fact that Trump said on Truth Social that the US received a 10-point proposal from Iran that is believed to be a “workable basis on which to negotiate”. Leavitt claimed that Iran actually put forward a “more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan to the president”. “The idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wish list is completely absurd,” she said, insisting that Trump’s red line on enriched uranium had not changed.
Netanyahu said in a televised statement that Israel’s “finger remains on the trigger”, adding, “we are prepared to return to combat at any moment required”. He said his campaign against Hezbollah would continue, reiterating that the ceasefire with Iran did not include the armed group, which is based out of Lebanon. “We continue to strike it with force,” he said. He also vowed to remove Iran’s nuclear material from the country, whether by winning the war or reaching an agreement. And he dismissed political rumours that Israel had been “surprised at the last moment,” by the ceasefire, insisting it came into effect “in full coordination with Israel”.
Amid all these wildly conflicting versions of what was agreed, Vance will lead a US delegation for peace talks in Islamabad on Saturday. He’ll be joined by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
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Vance says US never promised Lebanon ceasefire
As we’ve been reporting, there’s a serious disconnect between what Tehran and Washington are saying today regarding whether or not Lebanon was included in the two-week ceasefire deal reached last night.
Iran seems to think it was; Washington insists it wasn’t.
US vice-president JD Vance has now told reporters in Budapest that the US never promised to include Lebanon in the ceasefire, and that Iran may have been under that impression due to a “misunderstanding”.
I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise, we never indicated that was gonna be the case.
Per my last post, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that three key clauses of the ceasefire deal, including one regarding the ceasefire including Lebanon, had been violated.
Asked about that, Vance insulted Ghalibaf as he questioned whether he had misunderstood elements of the deal. He told reporters:
If he’s frustrated about three issues, that actually means that there’s a lot of agreement.
I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English, because there are things that he said that, frankly, didn’t make sense in the context of the negotiations.
Updated
US has violated three clauses of ceasefire deal, says Iran's parliament speaker
Earlier, Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that three key clauses of the hours-old ceasefire had been “openly and clearly violated” – including a ceasefire in Lebanon – ahead of planned negotiations, and described further talks as “unreasonable”.
In a statement on X, Ghalibaf said Iran’s “deep historical distrust” toward the US stems from its “repeated violations of all forms of commitments – a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again”.
He noted that Donald Trump had described Iran’s proposal as a “workable basis on which to negotiate” and the main framework for these talks” (which Trump did say on Truth Social, but the White House attempted to walk that back earlier).
The three violations, Ghalibaf said, were:
Non-compliance with the first clause of the 10-point proposal regarding the ceasefire in Lebanon – a commitment which Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has also explicitly referred to and declared as “an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and other regions, effective immediately”.
The entry of an intruding drone into Iran’s airspace, which was destroyed in Lar, “in clear violation of the clause prohibiting any further violation of Iranian airspace”.
Denial of Iran’s right to enrichment, which was included in the sixth clause of the framework.
Updated
The scale of killing amid Israel’s strikes on Lebanon is “horrific”, UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has said – urging the international community to “bring an end to this nightmare”.
At least 112 people were killed and 837 more wounded on Wednesday, according to the latest Lebanese health ministry toll.
The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific. Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief.
Türk also deplored Hezbollah’s missile and drone attacks on northern Israel, and urged both parties to stop, immediately.
Updated
Israeli police have said holy sites across Jerusalem will reopen on Thursday morning. They include the al-Aqsa mosque compound, which also contains the Dome of the Rock mosque and is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Police said the religious sites had been closed “due to safety measures adopted during the war with Iran” but would now “reopen to visitors and for prayer”.
Updated
An oil tanker has been returned to Gulf waters after trying to pass through the strait of Hormuz, Reuters is reporting, citing Iranian news agency, SNN. We’ll update you when we have more.
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Netanyahu address Israel - key points
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke earlier in a televised address to the nation about the ceasefire, here are the key points:
Israel’s “finger remains on the trigger”, he said, adding that “we are prepared to return to combat at any moment required.”
He said the campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon would continue, reiterating that the ceasefire with Iran did not include the Lebanese armed group. “We continue to strike it with force,” he said.
He dismissed political rumours that Israel had been “surprised at the last moment,” by the ceasefire, instead he said it came into effect “in full coordination with Israel.”
Netanyahu has faced domestic criticism from opposition lawmakers for agreeing to the ceasefire before achieving its war objectives. He called it “a historic operation” with the United States, noting that “such a partnership … against our greatest enemy is also unprecedented”.
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Ceasefire must include Lebanon or war will continue, Iran’s foreign minister says
The United States must choose between continued war via Israel or a ceasefire, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said in a post on social media.
The Iran–U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both.
The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.
Araghchi’s post also included a screenshot of this post from Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister, announcing the ceasefire had been reached on Tuesday, in which he had said:
I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
The White House insisted today that Lebanon was not included in the ceasefire deal and that “has been relayed to all parties”, as Israel massively ramped up an intense wave of airstrikes across the country, killing at least 254 people on Wednesday.
But that is starkly different to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) earlier warning both the US and Israel that it would respond if Israel did not cease attacks on Lebanon.
We issue a firm warning to the United States, which violates treaties, and to its Zionist ally, its executioner: if the aggression against beloved Lebanon does not cease immediately, we will fulfill our duty and deliver a response.
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Asked if Donald Trump is still considering withdrawing the US from Nato, Leavitt says:
It’s something the president has discussed, and I think its something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with secretary general [Mark] Rutte.
And perhaps you’ll hear directly from the president following that meeting later this afternoon.
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Nato was 'tested and they failed' by 'turning its back' on US, says White House
Leavitt shares a message from Donald Trump about Nato, saying the alliance was “tested and they failed”.
It’s quite sad that Nato turned [its] backs on the American people over the course of the last six weeks, when It’s the American people who have been funding their defence.
She adds that Trump will have a “frank and candid conversation” with Nato secretary-general, Mark Rutte, about this later today when they meet in Washington.
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Leavitt repeats that Trump’s message was a “very, very strong threat” – but “not an empty threat” – that led to results, in that Iran “caved” and asked for a ceasefire.
Asked again about how the US could possibly claim the moral high ground after Trump’s threat, she replies:
The insinuation by anyone in this room, that Iran somehow has the moral high ground over the United States of America is insulting, considering the atrocities that they have, considering the atrocities that they have committed against our people and our military over the past five decades.
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White House: Trump floating idea of US earning revenue from strait of Hormuz
Leavitt says that Donald Trump has floated the idea of the US earns revenue from ships passing through the strait of Hormuz by charging tolls.
“It’s something that will be discussed over the next two weeks,” she adds.
Trump’s immediate priority is to open the strait “without any limitations”, she says.
Reopening the strait and Iran turning over its enriched uranium are “on the top of the priority list” for Trump’s negotiating team.
Asked if Tehran has given any indication it would hand over its uranium, she says: “They have.”
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Leavitt is then asked about JD Vance’s and China’s role in the ceasefire.
The US vice-president’s role is “very significant”, she says, adding that he has been involved in all discussions and reiterates that he will be going to Islamabad for negotiations.
Trump has great respect for the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and he looks forward to visiting China in a few weeks, she adds.
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Asked how Donald Trump can claim the moral high ground after threatening to destroy the Iranian “civilisation”, Leavitt says that Iran has been chanting “death to America” for decades.
The president absolutely has the moral high ground … to suggest otherwise is frankly insulting.
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White House reiterates that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire
Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire deal and “that has been relayed to all parties”, Leavitt says.
She refers to a statement from Benjamin Netanyahu last night in which the Israeli prime minister said he supports the “efforts” related to the ceasefire and says he will continue to be a key partner in the negotiations.
Asked if Lebanon could potentially join a ceasefire deal, she says:
Again, this will continue to be discussed … but at this point in time they are not included in the ceasefire deal.
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Trump's 'tough style' led to ceasefire, White House says of threat to wipe out a 'whole civilisation'
Asked whether it was appropriate for Donald Trump to threaten to destroy a whole civilisation, Leavitt says:
I understand questions about the rhetoric but what he cares about is results. And his tough style is what led to this result that you’re all witnessing today.
Asked if the world should not take Trump’s words seriously, she says:
The world should take his words very seriously. And understand the president is always most interested in results.
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Vance, Witkoff and Kushner to attend talks in Islamabad
US vice-president JD Vance will travel to Pakistan for peace talks this weekend, beginning on Saturday morning, accompanied by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, Leavitt says.
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White House says reports that strait of Hormuz is closed are 'false'
Reports that Iran has closed the strait of Hormuz again are “completely unacceptable” and show that what Iran says publicly and privately is different, Leavitt says.
She claims that there has actually been an “uptick in traffic” in the strait today and that Donald Trump expects it to be “reopened immediately”.
That is his expectation, it has been relayed to him privately … These reports publicly are false.
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Leavitt says Trump’s red lines, namely the end of Iranian enrichment of uranium, have not changed.
A quick note to say that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is also giving a statement to the media now, I’ll bring you the key lines from that after the White House press briefing wraps up.
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White House offers muddy explanation over 10-point plan as basis for ceasefire agreement
The press secretary chides the press for allegedly “misreporting” that Donald Trump is working from the original 10-point plan put forward by Tehran.
“It was literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team,” she says, despite the fact that Trump said on Truth Social that the US received a 10-point proposal from Iran that is believed to be a “workable basis on which to negotiate”.
Leavitt claims that Iran actually put forward a “more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan to the president”.
“The idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wish list,” she says, “is completely absurd”.
After Trump announced the ceasefire Iranian state media published a proposal that included continued Iranian control over the strategic strait of Hormuz, an end to international sanctions on the country, and “acceptance” of uranium enrichment.
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Two-week ceasefire a 'victory' for the US, White House says
Leavitt calls the ceasefire a “victory” for the United States.
She frames the ceasefire as in line with Trump’s “four-to-six-week” timeline for the war, touts the US’s military capabilities and says the operation “achieved its core military objectives in just 38 days”.
That includes “destroying Iran’s defence-industrial base, crushing the regime’s ability to manufacture weapons,” she claims, adding that Iran’s ability to build and stockpile ballistic missiles and long-range drones has “been set back years”.
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Qatar condemns Israel's 'barbaric massacres and repeated attacks' on Lebanon as 'flagrant violation of international law'
Qatar has condemned “the brutal series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted vast areas in Lebanon” today that, per my last post, have killed at least 254 people and wounded 1,165.
In a statement, Qatar’s foreign ministry added that it considered the attacks “a dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the sister Lebanese Republic, the rules of international humanitarian law, and United Nations Security Council Resolution (1701)”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities by compelling the Israeli occupation authorities to halt their barbaric massacres and repeated attacks on Lebanon, and to hold them accountable for respecting international covenants and laws.
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The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, is due to brief reporters shortly. I’ll bring you all the key lines here.
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Death toll from Israeli attacks across Lebanon on Wednesday rises to 254
Israeli attacks have killed at least 254 people and wounded 1,165 across Lebanon today, according to Lebanon’s civil defence.
Al Jazeera has this breakdown by area:
Beirut: 92 killed, 742 injured
Southern suburbs of Beirut: 61 killed, 200 injured
Baalbek: 18 killed, 28 injured
Hermel: 9 killed, 6 injured
Nabatieh: 28 killed, 59 injured
Aley district: 17 killed, 6 injured
Sidon: 12 killed, 56 injured
Tyre: 17 killed, 68 injured
Updated
Iran closes strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon – state media
Iran has closed the strait of Hormuz in response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon today despite the ceasefire, Iranian state media reports, with Iran’s authorities said to be treating the strait as still closed.
The hours-old two-week conditional ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran had a provision for the temporary reopening of the crucial maritime channel. Effectively, the strait has remained closed as traffic had not immediately increased inthe hours after the ceasefire announcement.
Tehran said on Wednesday that it would offer safe passage in coordination with its armed forces, though its coast guard said any ship trying to transit without permission would be “targeted and destroyed”.
Israel has launched huge strikes across Lebanon today, killing over 250 people, with Trump later clarifying that Lebanon wasn’t included in the ceasefire deal.
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The day so far
The Pentagon “for now, for now, has done its part”, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday during a news conference. “We stand ready in the background to ensure Iran upholds every reasonable term.” Hegseth praised the “bravery and sheer guts” of the US military and said the operation had hobbled Iran’s regime.
Hegseth said that Iran will give the US its enriched uranium or else the US will “take it out”. He said the “new Iranian regime” has a different interaction with America than before.
World leaders have welcomed the announcement by the US and Iran of a two-week ceasefire, with Tehran agreeing to allow the safe transit of vessels through the strait of Hormuz.
The ceasefire that was brokered by Pakistan has been hailed a victory by both sides. Donald Trump repeated the claim that the war has achieved regime change in Iran, while officials in Tehran said the general principles “desired” by Iran were accepted in the ceasefire deal.
The prime minister of Lebanon, Nawaf Salam, has accused Israel of killing unarmed civilians in Lebanon and attacking densely populated areas, particularly in the capital city of Beirut. His remarks follow a statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that it carried out its largest wave of strikes against what it described as Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war began on 2 March.
The US president said Iran will cease uranium enrichment – a condition that Tehran has previously refused to budge on – and that his country will “work closely’ with Iran. In a post of his Truth Social app, Trump also warned countries supplying weapons to Iran that they will face a 50% tariff on any and all goods “effective immediately”.
Lebanon is not part of the two-week ceasefire deal, Trump has told the media. Speaking on the phone with PBS News Hour’s Liz Landers, Trump is reported to have said the Israel-Lebanon conflict is a “separate skirmish”, adding: “Yeah, they [Lebanon] were not included in the deal.”
The Iranian navy threatened ships attempting to pass through the strait of Hormuz without Tehran’s permission with destruction, adding that transit through the waterway remained shut, according to several shipping sources. “Any vessel trying to travel into the sea … will be targeted and destroyed,” the message said.
The Israeli government and military said the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued their strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. The IDF ordered people in the southern suburbs of Beirut to flee their homes yet again, as Israeli airstrikes pummelled Beirut and the outskirts of the Lebanese capital.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said the military had carried out a surprise attack on Wednesday targeting hundreds of Hezbollah members across Lebanon. “The IDF carried out a surprise strike on hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists at command centres across Lebanon. This is the largest concentrated blow Hezbollah has suffered since Operation Beepers,” Katz said in a video statement, referring to a major 2024 operation against Hezbollah involving pager bombs.
A US official said Wednesday that a 10-point ceasefire plan published by Iran is not the same set of conditions that were agreed to by the White House for pausing the war. “The document being reported by media outlets is not the working framework,” the senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan said Iran has confirmed it will participate in talks with the US aimed at resolving the conflict. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said he had invited US and Iranian delegations for talks in Islamabad on Friday.
The US embassy in Baghdad warned citizens on Wednesday of further attacks after it said Iran-backed armed groups hit a diplomatic support centre at the airport. “Iraqi terrorist militia groups aligned with Iran conducted multiple drone attacks in the vicinity of the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center and Baghdad International Airport on April 8,” the embassy said in a statement on X.
Updated
The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah commander in Beirut on Wednesday, after Lebanese state media reported that Israel had targeted a residential neighbourhood in the capital.
“A short while ago, the IDF struck a Hezbollah commander in Beirut,” the military said, without identifying the target.
‘A step back from the brink’: European leaders welcome US-Iran ceasefire
European leaders have welcomed the US-Iran ceasefire deal, while calling for the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and a permanent end to hostilities, including in Lebanon.
The US and Iran agreed a two-week conditional ceasefire on Tuesday, including a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz, after last-minute diplomacy from Pakistan. The Israeli military said on Wednesday, however, that it was continuing “fighting and ground operations” in its war against the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, despite a statement from mediator Pakistan that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the ceasefire, but called for Lebanon, a former French protectorate, to be included in the deal. He said about 15 countries were mobilised “under French leadership” to facilitate the resumption of traffic through the strait of Hormuz, where around one-fifth of the world’s oil flows.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who has been the most outspoken western critic of Donald Trump’s war in Iran, issued a typically blunt reaction, saying his administration “will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket”.
In a post on X he said: “Ceasefires are always good news – especially if they lead to a just and lasting peace. But this momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction, and the lives lost.”
You can read the full report here:
The US and Iran have agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire, thanks to a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan.
The conditions include a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz, but Israel’s position was left unclear, with airstrikes continuing on the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
Both sides have since claimed victory but who, if anyone, is the real winner here?
Lucy Hough speaks to senior international reporter Peter Beaumont…
Updated
The US embassy in Baghdad warned citizens on Wednesday of further attacks after it said Iran-backed armed groups hit a diplomatic support centre at the airport.
“Iraqi terrorist militia groups aligned with Iran conducted multiple drone attacks in the vicinity of the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center and Baghdad International Airport on April 8,” the embassy said in a statement on X.
“They may intend to conduct additional terrorist attacks against US citizens and targets associated with the United States throughout Iraq,” it added, advising citizens against travelling in Iraq by plane.
A US official said Wednesday that a 10-point ceasefire plan published by Iran is not the same set of conditions that were agreed to by the White House for pausing the war.
“The document being reported by media outlets is not the working framework,” the senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Erdogan warns of 'sabotage' threat to ceasefire
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Wednesday of the threat from “possible provocations and sabotage” to the ceasefire accord agreed by Iran and the United States.
In a message on X welcoming the last-minute accord, Erdogan said:
We hope that the ceasefire will be fully implemented on the ground without giving any opportunity for possible provocations and sabotage.
During a telephone conversation with US counterpart Donald Trump, Erdogan urged “a lasting peace agreement” with Iran, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.
“This two-week window of opportunity, which has opened after 40 days of considerable tension and suffering for the whole world, must be used to reach a lasting peace deal,” Erdogan told Trump, the statement added.
He also called for “this process not to be compromised under any circumstances” and said Turkey would offer its full support to ensure as much.
Updated
British prime minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday there was still a lot of work to do to reopen the strait of Hormuz, speaking during a visit to Saudi Arabia.
“We now ... have a ceasefire, but there’s a lot of work to do, as you will appreciate, a lot of work to make sure that that ceasefire becomes permanent and brings about the peace that we all want to see,” he told UK and Saudi personnel during the visit.
“But also a lot of work to do in relation to the Strait of Hormuz, which has an impact everywhere across the world.”
Lebanon not included in ceasefire deal, says Trump
Lebanon is not part of the two-week ceasefire deal, US president Donald Trump has told the media.
Speaking on the phone with PBS News Hour’s Liz Landers, Trump is reported to have said the Israel-Lebanon conflict is a “separate skirmish”, adding:
Yeah, they [Lebanon] were not included in the deal.
He added:
Because of Hezbollah. They were not included in the deal. That’ll get taken care of too. It’s alright.
Updated
Dozens of demonstrations have been held across Japan calling for an immediate end to the war in Iran, with protesters waving light sticks and holding banners lining packed into an area in front of the Diet building in Tokyo on Wednesday evening.
Against a musical backdrop, they chanted antiwar slogans and called on the country’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, to abide by the postwar constitution, which forbids Japan from using force as a means of settling international disputes. Many also demanded her resignation.
Fears that Takaichi, a conservative, could use her party’s huge majority in the lower house of parliament to push for constitutional reform have strengthened since the start of the war.
Last month, she turned down a request by Donald Trump to send Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Forces to the strait of Hormuz, telling him that any military involvement could violate the war-renouncing article 9 of Japan’s postwar constitution.
Trump has since criticised Japan - which is dependent on Middle East oil - and Washington’s other north-east Asian ally South Korea for not joining the conflict.
It was not immediately clear how many people had joined the protest in Tokyo, but organisers said they were hoping to exceed the 24,000 who turned out for a similar demonstration in March.
“It is always ordinary civilians who suffer in wars, so I decided to come here to make my voice heard,” said Setsuko Sasaki, who was attending her first demonstration. “I knew I would regret it if I did nothing.”
Her colleague Haruka Komori said she opposed any Japanese involvement in the US-Israeli war on Iran and voiced skepticism that the ceasefire announced on Wednesday would hold.
“The war has stirred something among Japanese people who oppose war and want to protect the constitution,” she said. “We should never get involved.”
Updated
US president Donald Trump said in-person talks with Iran will happen “very soon”, the New York Post reported today.
In an interview with the Post, Trump said vice-president JD Vance might not attend the talks due to security concerns.
Updated
Iranian navy threatens ships in strait of Hormuz without permission
The Iranian navy threatened ships attempting to pass through the strait of Hormuz without Tehran’s permission with destruction, adding that transit through the waterway remained shut, according to several shipping sources.
“Any vessel trying to travel into the sea ... will be targeted and destroyed...” the message said.
Updated
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said the military had carried out a surprise attack on Wednesday targeting hundreds of Hezbollah members across Lebanon.
“The IDF carried out a surprise strike on hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists at command centres across Lebanon. This is the largest concentrated blow Hezbollah has suffered since Operation Beepers,” Katz said in a video statement, referring to a major 2024 operation against Hezbollah involving pager bombs.
Analysis: US haste could offer opportunity to Iran
Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of war, and Gen Dan Caine, the head of the US armed forces, were eager to declare victory in their press conference, arguing that Iran’s navy, air force and air defences were wiped out and its ballistic missile programme “functionally destroyed”.
To that Hegseth added that the US and Israel had “finished completely destroying Iran’s industrial base” with a final package of 800 airstrikes overnight, though Tehran retains the ability to scare oil tankers from using the strait of Hormuz.
Caine offered some statistics. The general said 450 ballistic missile storage sites were targeted, 800 drone warehouses and 90% of the country’s weapons factories, including every facility that produces Shahed one-way attack drones.
Nevertheless, Hegseth had to acknowledge that Iran retains its 440kg of highly enriched uranium, buried deep underground, though he claimed it was possible to “take it out,” in what would be a high risk operation should the peace talks break down.
Though the phrase was not used, the tone was clearly ‘mission accomplished’, though in reality it was difficult to see how the US-Israeli bombing could have gone much further without deliberately hitting civilian targets and prompting accusations of war crimes.
Nor will it have been as surgical as Hegseth and Caine implied, though Iran’s internet blackout has prevented a full picture emerging.
The haste by the US to declare an end may now give Iran’s regime an opportunity - to finally obtain sanctions relief in return for abandoning nuclear enrichment on terms similar to those nearly agreed in Geneva before the war broke out.
However, it has taken five weeks of bombing to get to this point.
Updated
While some ships are cautiously on the move in the Gulf making their way towards the strait of Hormuz, communications on many remain either switched off or jammed, likely by Iran.
AXSMarine intelligence described disruption as “elevated” with “around 43% of vessels in the region are currently either not transmitting or broadcasting unreliable signals, compared to a pre-disruption baseline of around 17%”.
It measures the automatic identification signals that are transmitted by the shipping industry either to transponders on satellites or on shore.
Unreliable signals generally means the signal is being jammed by hostile actors.
Meanwhile, the US vice-president, JD Vance, said Iran must negotiate in “good faith” during the two-week ceasefire, as he called it a “fragile truce”.
He made the comments at a conference in the Hungarian capital city of Budapest, where he is supporting prime minister Viktor Orbán’s reelection bid
We have some of the clips from that speech here:
Israel is killing unarmed civilians in Lebanon, says Lebanese PM
The prime minister of Lebanon, Nawaf Salam, has accused Israel of killing unarmed civilians in Lebanon and attacking densely populated areas, particularly in the capital city of Beirut.
His remarks follow a statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that it carried out its largest wave of strikes against what it described as Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war began on 2 March.
In a post of X, Salam wrote:
Whilst we welcomed the agreement between Iran and the United States, and stepped up our efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, Israel continues to escalate its attacks, which have targeted densely populated residential neighbourhoods and claimed the lives of unarmed civilians across Lebanon, particularly in the capital, Beirut, showing no regard for regional and international efforts to end the war, let alone the principles of international law and international humanitarian law, which it has never respected in the first place.
Dramatic photos from the newswires show the aftermath of the Israeli strikes in Beirut and other areas of Lebanon:
Updated
The US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran is unlikely to lead to a swift exit for the hundreds of oil and gas tankers trapped in the Gulf, according to shipping experts.
One seafarer who is aboard an oil tanker stranded behind the strait of Hormuz told the Guardian that shipping companies would require more certainty before they attempt to transit the strait.
“We’re at anchor, near dozens of loaded tankers. No one has moved an inch,” they said.
The seafarer said that bulk carriers, loaded with dry bulk such as cars and containers, had begun to move towards the Gulf but that major shipping companies would be unlikely to move oil and gas tankers without the go-ahead from insurance companies.
“No reputable company, with any links to EU countries, will risk moving without Lloyds and major insurers saying that they can,” they said.
“Transiting the strait will require more certainty; insurers will need to agree to insure these cargoes and there would need to be a better understanding of how to pay “toll fees” to a country which is still officially sanctioned.”
It will take several days before the impact of the truce on shipping becomes clear, according to Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.
“Before the war, daily transits through the strait of Hormuz exceeded 100 ships per day and any increase from the trickle of ships currently passing the strait is likely to be gradual,” Soltvedt said.
“Two weeks will not be enough to clear the backlog even if there is a marked increase in traffic.”
Lebanon’s health ministry on Wednesday issued an emergency call for people to clear roads in Beirut for ambulances after a series of Israeli strikes on the capital.
In a statement, the ministry said it was “urgently calling on citizens to clear the way for ambulances so they can carry out their work”.
“The traffic congestion caused by the unprecedented wave of airstrikes launched by the Israeli enemy is hindering rescue efforts,” it said.
Iran to hand over enriched uranium or US will 'take it out' – Hegseth
Answering questions from the media, Hegseth says that Iran will give the US its enriched uranium or else the States will “take it out”.
He says the “new Iranian regime” has a different interaction with America than before.
Hegseth says he hopes and believes the ceasefire will hold, reinforcing that the strait of Hormuz is now open and commerce will flow.
Updated
The US military is prepared to resume attacks on Iran if ordered by president Donald Trump, the top US general says.
“Let us be clear, a ceasefire is a pause, and the joint force remains ready, if ordered or called upon,” Caine tells the press conference.
Caine says he has spoken to the crew who were on the mission to rescue the down air crew in Iran.
He praises them for their “tenacity, grit and courage”, adding that it is a story that sums up “who we are as Americans”.
“This was and is a joint force that has the guts to try and does not quit,” he says. “No lives were lost. We succeeded because the joint forces are always at the ready.”
US military objectives achieved, says Caine
Joint chiefs of staff Dan Caine says Donald Trump’s military objectives have now been achieved and that he welcomes the two-week ceasefire.
He says he “deeply appreciates the support of the American people, who always have us in their thoughts and prayers”.
He says the US military have struck more than 13,000 targets since the war began on 28 February.
Caine says he assesses that around 90% of Iran’s navy fleet have been destroyed, as well as 95% of its naval mines.
Updated
Pentagon chief Hegseth says Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “wounded and disfigured”.
He says Iran’s factories have been “razed to the ground” and that the Pentagon has “done its part for now”.
He adds that he believes there is now a chance for peace but US troops involved in the conflict remain ready.
Hegseth: Iran 'begged' for this ceasefire
Hegseth begins by saying Iran “begged for this ceasefire” and says Operation Epic Fury “decimated” Iran’s military.
He says the country’s missile programme has been “functionally destroyed” and that Iran’s navy “is at the bottom of the sea”. Hesgeth adds that “we [the US] own their skies”.
The US carried out 800 strikes on Tuesday night, he says, destroying Iran’s defence industrial base.
Updated
Secretary of defense Pete Hegseth and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Dan Caine are due to give a press conference imminently.
They will be expected to update the media on the US-Israeli war on Iran, in light of last night’s two-week ceasefire announcement.
Follow along here for all the latest news lines that emerge from it.
Summary of developments so far
World leaders have welcomed the announcement by the US and Iran of a two-week ceasefire, with Tehran agreeing to allow the safe transit of vessels through the strait of Hormuz.
The ceasefire that was brokered by Pakistan has been hailed a victory by both sides. Donald Trump repeated the claim that the war has achieved regime change in Iran, while officials in Tehran said the general principles “desired” by Iran were accepted in the ceasefire deal.
The US president said Iran will cease uranium enrichment - a condition that Tehran has previously refused to budge on – and that his country will “work closely’ with Iran. In a post of his Truth Social app, Trump also warned countries supplying weapons to Iran that they will face a 50% tariff on any and all goods “effective immediately”.
The Israeli government and military said the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued their strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. The IDF ordered people in the southern suburbs of Beirut to flee their homes yet again, as Israeli airstrikes pummelled Beirut and the outskirts of the Lebanese capital.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had launched the largest wave of strikes across Lebanon since the current conflict began, saying it attacked 100 command centres and military infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in 10 minutes.
Pakistan said Iran has confirmed it will participate in talks with the US aimed at resolving the conflict. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said he had invited US and Iranian delegations for talks in Islamabad on Friday.
Some of the first ships to sail through the strait of Hormuz since the ceasefire announcement have been detected, according to global marine data tracker AXSMarine. Ten ships have passed through the narrow waterway so far today, four of which were Iranian.
Updated
Ten ships sail through strait of Hormuz, says AXSMarine
French global marine data tracker AXSMarine says that 10 ships have passed through the strait of Hormuz so far today, four of which were Iranian.
There is no expectation that flows will return to anywhere near normal today as all ships must have permission from the Iranians and the shipping industry remains cautious, AXSMarine says.
In peacetime, between 50 and 100 ships would pass in either direction through the straits with the war reducing that to between two and seven vessel movements a day in the last two weeks after the Iranians gave the green light to certain national flag carriers.
AXSMarine recorded six crossings on both 1 and 2 April and seven on Sunday 5 April, and consistent two-way movement has been observed each day since so Wednesday’s movement shows a minor uptick.
“Initially, Iran announced that ships owned by five nations (China, Russia, India, Iraq and Pakistan) would be allowed to transit. Malaysian and Thai vessels were granted access after diplomatic talks. On 2 April, Iran said it would allow Philippine-flagged vessels to cross following further negotiations,” AXSMarine said.
Updated
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had launched the largest wave of strikes across Lebanon since the current conflict began, saying it attacked 100 command centres and military infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in 10 minutes.
It said the strikes were launched at targets in the capital city of Beirut – where thousands of people have been told to flee their homes – the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.
Iran will cease uranium enrichment, Trump claims
Donald Trump said Iran will cease uranium enrichment - a condition that Tehran has previously refused to budge on – and that the US will help to “dig up” enriched uranium buried under strikes last summer.
He added that many of the conditions in his 15-point ceasefire plan touted a few weeks ago have been agreed to by Iran.
Writing on his Truth Social app, he said.
The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change! There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear “Dust.” It is now, and has been, under very exacting Satellite Surveillance (Space Force!). Nothing has been touched from the date of attack. We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran. Many of the 15 points have already been been agreed to. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
In a subsequent post, he said any country supplying weapons to Iran will be slapped with a 50% tariff on any and all goods “effective immediately”.
He wrote:
A Country supplying Military Weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately. There will be no exclusions or exemptions!
UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper desrcibed the ceasefire as “a vital step” towards security and stability in the Middle East.
She said a swift resolution was the best way to improve security and ease the economic impacts caused by the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz.
She said the proposed talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan must lead to a “full end to the conflict and ensure that Iran does not continue to threaten the strait or its neighbours”.
“I also call for an urgent end to hostilities in Lebanon,” she added.
Ship movements resume in strait of Hormuz after ceasefire announcement, says MarineTraffic
Some of the first ships to sail through the strait of Hormuz since the ceasefire announcement have been detected, according to tracking data analyst MarineTraffic.
Two vessels, including the Greek-owned bulk carrier NJ Earth and the Liberia-flagged Daytona Beach, have crossed the strait today, MarineTraffic said in a post on X.
It said:
Early signs of vessel activity are emerging in the strait of Hormuz following a ceasefire announcement, which includes a temporary reopening of the strategic waterway to allow for negotiations. According to MarineTraffic data, hundreds of vessels remain in the region, including 426 tankers, 34 LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) carriers, and 19 LNG (liquefied natural gas) vessels, many of which had been effectively stranded during the disruption.
More on the proposed US-Iran talks in Islamabad – reportedly taking place this Friday – the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said he had a “warm and substantive conversation” with the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian today.
In a post of X, Sharif said:
I conveyed my deep appreciation for the wisdom and sagacity of the Iranian leadership in accepting Pakistan’s offer to host peace talks in Islamabad later this week to work jointly for the return of peace to the region.
President Pezeshkian reaffirmed Iran’s participation in the upcoming negotiations and expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s efforts, while conveying his best wishes for the people of Pakistan.
Pakistan remains committed to working closely with all its friends and partners to advance peace and stability in the region and beyond.
Updated
Lebanon president calls for inclusion of his country in 'regional peace'
The president of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, welcomed the US-Iran ceasefire and said he hoped his country will be included in the regional truce.
The Israeli government and military said the fighting in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah militants would continue, with Israeli strikes reported in the country since the US-Iran ceasefire was announced.
In a statement posted online by the Lebanese presidency, Aoun said Lebanon would continue efforts “to ensure that the regional peace includes Lebanon in a stable and lasting manner”.
Vance: Iran ceasefire a 'fragile truce'
US vice-president JD Vance has acknowledged that the Iran ceasefire remained a “fragile truce”, as he sought to dispute Iran’s declared victory in the war.
Speaking in the Hungarian capital city of Budapest, where he is supporting prime minister Viktor Orbán’s reelection bid, Vance said some Iranians “are basically lying about what we have accomplished militarily” and “about the nature of the agreement”.
He said
This is why I say this is a fragile truce. You have people who clearly want to come to the negotiating table and work with us to find a good deal, and then you have people who are lying about even the fragile truce that we’ve already struck.
The president … has told me and he’s told the entire negotiating team, the secretary of state, the special envoy, Steve Witkoff, he said: go and work in good faith to come to an agreement. … If the Iranians are willing, in good faith, to work with us, I think we can make an agreement; if they’re going to lie, if they’re going to cheat, if they’re going to try to prevent even the fragile truce that we’ve set up from taking place, then they’re not going to be happy.
My colleague, Jakub Krupa, has more over on the Europe live blog, where he is reporting reactions to the ceasefire deal from around continent and other Europe-related news. You can follow those updates here:
Updated
Pakistan PM says Iran has confirmed it will take part in talks in Islamabad
In a statement released by his office, the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said he has got confirmation from Iran that it will participate in talks in Islamabad.
Sharif said the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, confirmed Iran will take part in negotiations with the US that seek to resolve the conflict.
Earlier, Sharif said he invited delegations for talks on Friday in the Pakistani capital. While Iranian state media reported that the talks may be extended, it said negotiations with the US do not amount to the end of the war.
Iran president says ceasefire in line with 'general principles desired by Tehran'
The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the ceasefire announced this morning is in line with “the general requirements desired” by Tehran.
A translation of his post on X reads:
The ceasefire, with the acceptance of the general principles desired by Iran, was the fruit of the blood of our martyred leader, the great Khamenei, and the result of the participation of all the people in the arena. From today, we will continue to stand together, whether in the field of diplomacy, in defence, on the streets, or in the realm of public service.
He joins other Iranian officials who have declared the ceasefire deal a win for Iran. Mohammad Reza Aref, Iran’s first vice president, wrote on X that “the era of Iran has begun”, while Iran’s supreme national security council said the US has “suffered an undeniable, historical, and crushing defeat”.
IDF tells residents of southern suburbs of Beirut to flee after announcing continued combat and ground operations
The Israeli military told people in the southern suburbs of Beirut to flee, moments after announcing its forces are continuing “combat and ground operations” against Hezbollah.
In its third time it has told people in Lebanon to flee since the US-Iran ceasefire was announced, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) urged residents of seven Beirut neighbourhoods to flee their homes.
The order covers a large swathe of the Lebanese capital, where hundreds of thousands of people have already become displaced following repeated IDF warnings to leave the area.
“The IDF continues to operate and strike at military infrastructure belonging to the terrorist organisation Hezbollah across the southern suburbs,” the IDF Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said on X.
“The IDF has no intention of harming you; therefore, for your own safety, you must evacuate immediately.”
The Israeli government said it accepts the two-week ceasefire agreement reached last night between the US and Iran, but that it does not include Lebanon, contrary to a statement by Pakistan. Hezbollah has yet to publicly announce its position.
Updated
Oman foreign minister urges both sides to return to negotating table
Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who mediated indirect nuclear talks between Iran and the US before the war, said the ceasefire meant “for now the world has stepped back from disaster”.
“But there’s no room for complacency,” he said in a post on X. “Serious negotiations now required for lasting peace. Oman will support this work for the vital and urgent purpose of strong and enduring regional security.`”
Here are some of the latest images from across the Middle East:
Will the ceasefire see a resumption of pre-war shipping on the strait of Hormuz?
Last night, 1,441 ships were stuck on either side of the strait of Hormuz , according to shipping software company AXSMarine, which tracks global vessel movements.
The majority - 959 - were in the Gulf, west of the strait, with 621 to the east either waiting to enter the gulf to load up with gas, oil, chemicals or dry bulk or with deliveries for gulf states.
No ships carrying liquified natural gas have passed the strait since the war started on 28 February, according to AXSMarine’s data.
A significant number on both sides were “spoofing” or had gone “dark”, turning off communications to hide their exact location and try and protect themselves from projectiles.
In the last two weeks up to 6 April, just 51 tankers traversed the strait with 15 carrying crude oil and 9 carrying chemicals.
This compares to 51 daily movements before the war.
Before last night’s ceasefire, Iran had announced that ships owned by five nations (China, Russia, India, Iraq and Pakistan) would be allowed to transit. Malaysian and Thai vessels were granted access after diplomatic talks. On 2 April, Iran said it would allow Philippine-flagged vessels to cross following further negotiations.
While the Israeli military said it will push on with its ground invasion of southern Lebanon, sources told Reuters that Hezbollah has halted its attacks against northern Israel and on Israeli troops.
Three Lebanese sources close to the group told the news agency that Hezbollah is likely to issue a statement outlining its formal position on the US-Iran ceasefire and on Israel’s assertion that Lebanon is not included.
The Lebanese army, meanwhile, has urged displaced families to delay their return home to the south of the country, warning of ongoing Israeli attacks.
Israeli military 'continues fighting and ground operations' against Hezbollah in Lebanon, IDF says
The Israeli military said it “continues fighting and ground operations” in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
In a statement on social media, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it carried out extensive strikes on launch sites across Iran overnight before halting fighting after the ceasefire was announced.
“In accordance with political directives, the IDF has contained the fighting in the campaign against Iran and remains on high alert for defence, ready to respond to any violation,” the IDF said.
It added that in Lebanon, “the IDF continues its combat and ground operations against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation”.
'Now it’s time for diplomacy, legality and peace', says Spanish PM
Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who has been perhaps the most outspoken western critic of Trump’s war in Iran, has issued a blunt reaction to the ceasefire announcement on X, saying his administration “will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket”.
He said:
Ceasefires are always good news - especially if they lead to a just and lasting peace. But this momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction, and the lives lost.
The Spanish government will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.
What’s needed now are diplomacy, international legality, and PEACE.
Analysis: US learns a hard lesson about the folly of war
Brett McGurk, a former senior US security official and reluctantly supportive of the conflict, conceded on social media that the ceasefire agreement Trump has signed is not “status quo ante bellum” ie the US is now worse off than at the start of this war of choice.
To spell it out, Trump needlessly started a war at the urging of Israel, refused to listen to those experts urging caution, devised a strategy built on a misapprehension of Iran, sparked a ruinous regional conflict, caused the death of thousands of civilians, unhinged the world economy, strengthened, for now, the repressive instincts of the Iranian and Russian governments, left America more discredited and isolated, provoked serious questions about the president’s fitness for public office, laid waste to large parts of Iran and Lebanon, including medical research centres, primary schools and universities, did not resolve Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium or its future nuclear programme, strengthened those in Iran backing possession of a nuclear weapon, and, yes, ensured Iran and Oman still plan to control and toll the strait of Hormuz for the first time.
A return to war will doubtless soon be threatened even before the two-week ceasefire ends, but the use of force in this decades-old conflict has now been test driven and proven the wrong vehicle since it can only achieve its objectives at an inconceivable price.
Updated
In further comments to RNE, Albares has criticised Israel for its continued offensive in Lebanon, saying it was “unacceptable”.
“It is inconceivable that the bombing continues. This has to stop,” he said.
There has been some confusion over whether the ceasefire announced this morning includes Lebanon. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, indicated Israeli troops would continue fighting there, contradicting an earlier statement from the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
'Unthinkable escalation has been avoided, but the ceasefire is not yet definitive', says Spanish foreign minister
While more officials from around the world are issuing statements praising the cessation of hostilities between the US and Iran, the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, has erred on the side of caution, saying the ceasefire is “only for two weeks” and that it was too early to determine whether the war was truly over.
Speaking to the Spanish radio station RNE, he said the world came “perilously close to disaster” after US president Donald Trump threatened to wipe out Iranian civilisation in his ultimatum to Tehran.
“When the leader of a military superpower makes such threats, I take them seriously,” Albares said.
He continued: “We are talking about something unthinkable for humanity and which would have led to an unthinkable escalation.”
While acknowledging the ceasefire announcement brings “a day of hope and joy” he cautioned that “it’s only two weeks, not a long time, and the two sides are far apart”.
He added: “We’re still far from achieving what we want. The ceasefire is a necessary step, but not a definitive one.”
Jet fuel supplies 'will take months' to recover, says IATA chief
It will take months for jet fuel supplies and prices to return to normal even after the strait of Hormuz reopens due to the disruptions to refineries in the Middle East, said Willie Walsh, the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Speaking to reporters in Singapore, he said that it was difficult to say how long fuel supplies would take to recover, but that “it’s not going to happen quickly”.
“It will still take a period of months to get back to where supply needs to be given the disruption to the refining capacity in the Middle East,” he said, according to the AFP news agency.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen in weeks.”
Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s senior diplomatic envoy, said his country has triumphed in the war following the announcement of a US-Iran ceasefire.
Writing in Arabic, a translation of his post on X reads:
The UAE emerged victorious from a war we had sincerely sought to avoid, and we triumphed through an epic national defence that safeguarded our sovereignty and dignity and protected our achievements in the face of brutal aggression. Today, we are poised to navigate a complex regional landscape with greater experience, deeper insight, and a more robust capacity to influence and shape the future.
Our strength, resilience and steadfastness have reinforced the UAE’s model of renaissance.
As news of a ceasefire with Iran broke, it was unclear whether the halt in fighting would extend to Lebanon, the second front of the war, where Israel’s fight against Hezbollah has killed more than 1,500 people, many of them civilians.
Conflicting statements came from Iran and mediator Pakistan, both of which insisted any ceasefire would include an end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon, and Israel, whose prime minister plainly stated a ceasefire would not include Lebanon. The US had yet to weigh in. Israel had previously said that it would redouble its focus on the Lebanese front once fighting in Iran ended.
Israel continued striking Lebanon into the morning, pounding the south with artillery fire and carrying out two separate drone strikes on the town of Qana and al-Qaleileh. An hour before the Iran ceasefire was announced, Israel bombed a car in front of a row of beach-side cafes in Saida, killing eight people and wounding 22, according to the Lebanese ministry of health.
Despite the lack of a ceasefire on the ground in Lebanon, the highways leading to the south of the country were choked with traffic as dawn broke. Residents were attempting to return to their homes in south Lebanon, but Hezbollah, in a statement, urged people. not to return to certain villages across the border due to the continuing presence of Israeli troops there. Israel’s military spokesperson also issued a renewed evacuation order for the city of Tyre, in south Lebanon.
WhatsApp chats were filled with anxious and hopeful messages between people in Lebanon as they tried to parse whether or not the country would be included in the Iran ceasefire. The almost five weeks of war in Lebanon has brought the country to its breaking point, with more than 1.1 million people forcibly displaced, many of whom are living on the streets.
Keir Starmer says ceasefire 'will bring a moment of relief to the region and the world' as he heads to the Middle East
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has joined a chorus of world leaders welcoming the announcement of a ceasefire between Iran and the US.
“I welcome the ceasefire agreement reached overnight, which will bring a moment of relief to the region and the world,” he said.
“Together with our partners we must do all we can to support and sustain this ceasefire, turn it into a lasting agreement and reopen the strait of Hormuz.”
Starmer is travelling to the Middle East today to meet Gulf leaders to “discuss diplomatic efforts to support and uphold the ceasefire”, No 10 said.
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Interim summary
For those of you just joining us, here’s where things stand in the Middle East after a dramatic day.
The US and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire, barely an hour before Donald Trump’s Wednesday deadline to obliterate the country and its infrastructure.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it had conditionally accepted the two-week ceasefire if attacks against Iran are halted.
Iran’s foreign minister said passage through the strait of Hormuz will be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management.
Iranian state media said negotiations with the US would be held in Islamabad to finalise details of an agreement. Talks will begin on Friday 10 April and may be extended, state media reported. State media also reported that talks with the US do not amount to the end of the war.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shebaz Sharif, announced that Iran, the US and their allies had agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon, but Israel disputed this, saying fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire. Sharif has been a key figure in attempting to reach a diplomatic solution between the two warring parties.
Trump said Iran had proposed a “workable” 10-point peace plan. According to Iranian state media, the proposal includes a number of conditions that the US has in the past rejected, among them controlled transit through the strait of Hormuz coordinated with Iranian armed forces and the withdrawal of all US forces from regional bases. The plan would also require the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, payment of full compensation to Iran and release of all frozen Iranian assets.
Even as the ceasefire was proposed, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Israel.
Countries around the world have welcomed the tentative ceasefire. Australia’s PM, Anthony Albanese, welcomed the “very positive” developments but issued a rare rebuke of Trump’s “extraordinary” language beforehand. South Korea, Japan and New Zealand were among the other nations to welcome the news.
Ceasefire a 'political disaster' says Israel's opposition leader
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has offered up his reflections on the last few hours of diplomacy and said “there has never been such a political disaster in all of our history.”
Lapid, who heads the centrist Yesh Atid party, has said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “failed politically, failed strategically, and didn’t meet a single one of the goals that he himself set.”
It will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu wrought due to arrogance, negligence, and a lack of strategic planning.
Analysis: US power has been severely diminished
The likely biggest consequences are the ones most difficult to assess. But it seems clear that the despite a bellicose assertion of US military power under Trump and his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, US power has been severely diminished by an illegal adventure with ill-defined war aims.
With Iran still in control of the strait of Hormuz, a middle ranking global military power that has suffered under years of punitive sanctions has not only managed to survive weeks of heavy US and Israeli bombardment but pursued a succeessful strategy of horizontal escalation that imposed heavy global economic costs.
The more militarily significant Gulf states, to the surprise of few, turned out to be paper tigers, despite a huge investment in arms. Netanyahu, who promised an easy war was revealed, not for the first time, to be hopelessly unrealistic in his assessments about Iran and the wider region.
Across the globe friends and foes will draw their own conclusions. China and Russia will have noted the limits of US power and that, despite the jaw-jaw, the US did not commit ground troops to its chaotically conducted campaign.
The damage wrought by Trump to a weakened Nato will also have been well-noted, even as European countries have moved to distance themselves from Washington.
Practically, other big questions remain. Does the ceasefire deal cover Lebanon, as mediator Pakistan has suggested? In the run-up to the ceasefire, one suggestion was that one off ramp from the war would see the US and Israeli assault on Iran halt while Israel continued with an expansionist campaign against Lebanon to get Netanyahu off the hook.
“Trump lost this war in every possible sense – morally, legally, politically, economically, reputationally, and strategically”, suggested Timothy Snyder, a historian of authoritarianism, echoing the views of many experts.
“Trump has given the theocracy in Iran another lease on life with this failed war,” said Trita Parsi, an Iran expert at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, “just as Saddam Hussein did in 1980 when he invaded Iran and, by that, ensured that Ayatollah Khomeini could consolidate his power.”
It is hard to disagree.
Analysis: Trump's 'deal' is a huge strategic failure for the US
A genocidal threat, and then the US president, Donald Trump, blinked – without any apparently meaningful concessions from Iran. As in so much concerning the second Trump administration, the two week ceasefire “deal” that will see the strait of Hormuz reopened – if it can be described as such – is maddeningly vague and short on detail, apparently kicking the can on key issues down the road.
Iran’s nuclear issue, Trump said, would be solved “perfectly.” “It was a big day for world peace”, Trump posted on Truth Social. “Iran can start reconstruction” he added. “Big money” could be made. Yada. Yada. Yada.
The reality is that as the current circumstances stand, this represents a huge strategic failure for the US. Despite having killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders, the regime change initially promised by Trump and US prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to materialise. Instead it appears the regime has consolidated around a more hardline core centred on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Far from being a new, more reasonable and less radical regime, as Trump has repeatedly suggested, it remains essentially the same regime – wounded, wary, and perhaps even more hardline.
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Blasts and missile alarm warnings have been heard in Bahrain, despite the announcement of the temporary ceasefire in the region. The country’s interior ministry reported a fire had been extinguished at a facility after an Iranian attack, with no injuries sustained.
Israel said it was also intercepting missiles and striking back at sites in Iran, while Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also activated warning sirens and air defence systems in the hours after the ceasefire announcement. It remains unclear when the ceasefire will take effect.
The ceasefire has offered some immediate relief to countries struggling with fuel supply, but hopes the truce will quickly restore normality are misplaced, analysts have suggested.
Saul Kavonic, the head of energy research at MST Financial, said the two-week pause provided “an off-ramp for Trump’s overly bombastic ultimatum, but not yet an off-ramp for oil markets or the war”. He told Reuters it was unlikely the shut in oil and LNG production would resume until there was more confidence in a lasting ceasefire.
Ron Bousso, Reuter’s energy correspondent, agreed that even if tankers could safely exit the Gulf, shipowners would probably remain cautious about re-entering the region when any resumption of hostilities could result in the loss of vessels or crew.
Prashant Newnaha, a senior strategist at the Singapore-based TD Securities, said a renewed escalation could not be ruled out, “but markets are treating this ceasefire as the real deal and all parties involved will sell the ceasefire as a major win.
“Looking further out, oil prices are not returning to pre-war levels. This will leave inflation persistence as a key theme for markets to ponder,” he said.
Many other countries have also issued statements welcoming the tentative ceasefire, including South Korea, New Zealand and Iraq, alongside reactions from Australia, Japan and Pakistan as we reported earlier.
South Korea’s ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement that they hoped “negotiations between the two sides will be successfully concluded and that peace and stability in the Middle East will be restored at an early date”, as well as wishes for “free and safe navigation of all vessels through the strait of Hormuz”.
A spokesperson for New Zealand’s foreign minister, Winston Peters, welcomed the “encouraging news” but noted “there remains significant important work to be done to secure a lasting ceasefire”. Iraq’s foreign ministry likewise called for “serious and sustainable dialogue” between the US and Iran “to address the root causes of the disputes”.
Japan has welcomed the temporary ceasefire in the US-Israel war on Iran, adding that it “expects” the move to result in a “final agreement” after Washington and Tehran begin talks on Friday.
Describing the ceasefire as a “positive move”, the chief cabinet secretary, Minoru Kihara, told reporters that Tokyo wanted to see a de-escalation on the ground in the region, adding that the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, was seeking talks with the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
A temporary end to hostilities will come as a relief to Japan, which depends on the Middle East for about 90% of its crude oil imports, most of which is transported through the strait of Hormuz.
Takaichi has condemned Tehran for its partial blockade of the waterway and Iran’s attacks on other Middle Eastern countries, but has refused a request from Donald Trump to send Japanese maritime self-defence forces to help secure safe passage for ships using the strait.
The Japanese PM reportedly explained to Trump that military involvement was impossible under Japan’s postwar constitution, which bans it from using force to settle international disputes.
Trump has since condemned Japan – and Washngton’s other north-east Asian ally South Korea, along with Australia – for refusing to join the war.
Markets in Asia responded positively to news of the ceasefire, with the Nikkei stock index surging 4.8% and South Korea’s Kospi gaining 5.6% on Wednesday morning.
There was relief in Japan, too, over the dip in crude oil prices, after warnings that a prolonged conflict could push inflation higher and dampen domestic demand in the world’s fourth-largest economy.
Takahide Kiuchi of the Nomura Research Institute said Japan and other countries in Asia that rely on oil imports could face “serious economic risks” if the conflict continued to drag on.
“If shipping operations in the strait of Hormuz do not return to normal, Japan will eventually face a severe crude oil shortage,” Kiuchi told the Nikkei Asia business paper. “Should such risks escalate, the government would likely call on households and businesses to curb gasoline and electricity consumption, much as it did during the oil shocks of the 1970s.”
Updated
US political leaders and many Americans breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday evening, after Donald Trump announced a provisional ceasefire deal following threats to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization”.
“I’m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said on Tuesday night.
Several Republicans cheered the president’s decision, casting it as shrewd and tactical.
“Excellent news,” Senator Rick Scott of Florida said. “This is a strong first step toward holding Iran accountable and what happens when you have a leader who puts peace through strength over chaos and weak appeasement policies.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the chamber’s loudest and most aggressive Iran hawks, said on Tuesday evening he shared the hope that “we can end the reign of terror of the Iranian regime through diplomacy”.
But he added: “We must remember that the strait of Hormuz was attacked by Iran after the start of the war, destroying freedom of navigation. Going forward, it is imperative Iran is not rewarded for this hostile act against the world.”
Donald Trump claims 'a big day for world peace'
Donald Trump has called Tuesday “a big day for world peace” on a social media post, claiming that Iran has “had enough”. He said the US will be “helping with the traffic buildup” in the strait of Hormuz, and that “big money will be made” as Iran begins reconstruction.
In the statement on Truth Social, he added that the US would be just “hangin’ around” in order to make sure everything goes well” and that he was confident it would. He later added “this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East”.
The two-week ceasefire with Iran remains conditional in nature, and Washington has yet to publicly accept an invitation to talks planned for Friday in Islamabad.
Some points in Iran’s 10-point plan for a ceasefire have previously been rejected by the US in the past.
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Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has welcomed a two-week ceasefire deal between the US and Iran that is set to temporarily reopen the strait of Hormuz, as he issued a rare criticism of Donald Trump for threatening a “whole civilization will die”.
The prime minister said news of the conditional ceasefire was “very positive” and was hopeful it would lead to the permanent end to a conflict that has sent global fuel prices soaring.
In an interview with Sky News, Albanese said threatening to destroy civilian infrastructure was an “extraordinary statement to make”.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to use language such as that from the president of the United States. And I think it will cause some concern, which is there,” the prime minister said.
“We’ve said very clearly that the conduct of any conflict must be within international law and that provides for making sure that civilians – who aren’t parties to the conflict – are given every protection possible.”
Albanese would not be drawn on whether the bombing of civilian infrastructure would constitute a war crime, which is the view of legal experts and officials from numerous countries.
Israel says ceasefire does not include Lebanon
Israel supports Donald Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but said the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.
The office said Israel backed the US move, provided Tehran immediately opens the strait of Hormuz and stops attacks against the United States, Israel and countries in the region.
The Pakistani prime minister, Shebaz Sharif, had previously said the ceasefire extended over Lebanon.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the start of the war have killed more than 1,400 people, including 126 children, and displaced more than 1 million, according to Lebanese authorities. The renewed Israeli war on Lebanon was launched after Hezbollah – the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group – fired rockets into northern Israel in response to the killing of the former Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in joint US-Israeli airstrikes.
Israel also said it supports US efforts to ensure Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile or “terror” threat to US, Israel and Iran’s Arab neighbours, adding that Washington had told Israel it was committed to achieving their shared goals in upcoming negotiations. Iran said on Wednesday negotiations with the US would begin on Friday 10 April in Islamabad.
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Summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran.
The United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire barely an hour before Donald Trump’s Wednesday deadline to obliterate the country was set to expire, with Tehran saying it will temporarily reopen the vital strait of Hormuz.
Both sides claimed to have won the more than month-long conflict that has roiled global financial markets and sent oil prices skyrocketing, with Trump telling the AFP news agency the deal was a “total and complete victory” for the US.
Iran too cast the ceasefire as a win and said it had agreed to talks with Washington to begin Friday in Pakistan on a path to end the conflict.
“The enemy has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat in its cowardly, illegal and criminal war against the Iranian nation,” said a statement from the Iranian Supreme National Security Council.
“Iran achieved a great victory.”
The White House said Israel had also agreed to the ceasefire, but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it does not include Lebanon, where Israeli assaults in response to rocket fire by Iranian-backed Hezbollah have led to more than 1,500 deaths, according to Lebanese authorities.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it had conditionally accepted a two-week ceasefire if attacks against Iran are halted.
Iran’s foreign minister said passage through the strait of Hormuz will be allowed for the next 2 weeks under Iranian military management.
Iranian state media said negotiations with the US would be held in Islamabad to finalise details of an agreement, with the aim of “confirming Iran’s battlefield achievements”. Talks will begin on Friday 10 April and may be extended, state media reported. State media also reported that talks with the US do not amount to the end of the war.
Pakistani prime minister Shebaz Sharif announced that Iran, the US and their allies agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon. Sharif has been a key figure in attempting to reach a diplomatic solution between the two warring parties. In his statement, Sharif invited delegations to Islamabad on “Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes”.
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli welcomed the ceasefire but said fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon was not part of it.
Trump said Iran had proposed a “workable” 10-point peace plan. According to Iranian state media, the ten-point proposal includes a number of conditions that the US has in the past rejected. Among them are controlled transit through strait of Hormuz coordinated with Iranian armed forces and withdrawal of all US forces from regional bases. The plan would also require the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, payment of full compensation to Iran and release of all frozen Iranian assets.
Iranian state media also said the 10-point plan for securing an end to the war would require Washington to accept its uranium enrichment program, a previous red line for the Trump administration.
Even as the ceasefire was proposed, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Israel.
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