Trump says Lebanon not included in US-Iran ceasefire amid Israeli assault

The US president says the war in Lebanon is a ‘separate skirmish’ as Israel kills dozens across the country after regional truce. President Donald Trump has claimed that Lebanon was not included in the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, contradicting the assertion of Pakistan, which mediated the truce. After Israel launched a massive assault on Lebanon on Wednesday, killing and injuring hundreds of people in densely populated areas, Trump said the Israeli war on Hezbollah is a “separate skirmish”. “Because of Hezbollah, they were not included in the deal,” Trump told the public broadcaster PBS. “That’ll get taken care of, too. It’s all right.” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt echoed the US president’s comment later on Wednesday. “ Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire that has been relayed to all parties involved in the ceasefire,” she told reporters. Leavitt also dismissed speculations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be looking to undermine the truce by attacking Lebanon, saying that Israel remains a “key ally and partner” to the US. Neither Leavitt nor Trump addressed Pakistan’s announcement that Lebanon was part of the ceasefire. Iranian warnings The exclusion of Lebanon from the truce risks jeopardising the ceasefire across the region. State-affiliated Iranian news outlets have reported that Tehran will take serious steps to respond to the Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The Fars News Agency said “oil tankers have been suspended from passing through the Strait of Hormuz” in response to the Israeli assault. Iranian officials, however, have not confirmed the report. It is also unclear whether the purported suspension was temporary or if it will remain in effect for a longer term. Advertisement The news agency Tasnim also cited an informed Iranian source as saying that Tehran would withdraw from the agreement if Israel continues to violate the ceasefire with its attack on Lebanon. A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera Arabic that Tehran will “punish Israel in response to the crime it committed in Lebanon”. The official stressed that the ceasefire includes the entire region. “Israel is known for breaking promises and will only be deterred by bullets,” the source said. But Iran has not launched missiles or drones at Israel in the hours following the Israeli strikes in Lebanon. Later on Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that fighting would start again if Israel does not observe the ceasefire in Lebanon. “If the aggressions against dear Lebanon are not stopped immediately, we will do our duty and give a regretful response to the evil aggressors in the region,” it said. Late on Tuesday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the two-week truce covers the entire region, specifically mentioning Lebanon. “With the greatest humility, 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,” Sharif wrote on the social media platform X. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Arghchi shared Sharif’s post on Wednesday, highlighting the part about Lebanon. “The Iran-US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Arghchi wrote. “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.” Israel’s Channel 12 also reported that Iran had insisted on Lebanon being included in the ceasefire. But Netanyahu was quick to assert that attacks against Lebanon would continue. At least 89 people killed Hours after his remarks, Israel launched one of its most intense attacks in the history of the conflict in Lebanon, bombing residential buildings, mosques, medical centres, vehicles and cemeteries across the country. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the Israeli onslaught killed at least 112 people and injured more than 800 others. “The needs are increasing, but the scale of the assault is also huge,” Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told Al Jazeera. “We are facing a dangerous escalation that happened in Lebanon, an Israeli aggression with more than 100 air strikes that targeted innocent civilians in Beirut, Dahiyeh, Bekaa, Mount Lebanon and the south.” Advertisement The attacks compounded the humanitarian and displacement crises in Lebanon, where more than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes. One strike targeted a funeral in the Bekaa Valley town of Shmestar, killing at least 20 people. Several air raids were also reported in central Beirut and the coastal cities of Sidon and Tyre. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on the international community to step in and “bring an end to these aggressions”. Israel “remains utterly heedless of all regional and international efforts to halt the war – not to mention its utter disregard for the principles of international law and international humanitarian law, which it has never respected”, Salam said. For its part, Hezbollah said the Israeli attacks were driven by “blind malice, habitual criminality and boundless brutality”. It re-asserted what it called its “natural and legal right” to resist the assault. “This barbaric aggression – which constitutes documented war crimes and acts of genocide through targeting of densely populated civilian areas, markets and commercial shops during peak hours – is nothing more than a desperate attempt to exact revenge upon the civilian population,” the Iran-allied group said. The war between Israel and Hezbollah intensified after the Lebanese group launched a rocket attack on Israel early in March. Hezbollah said that attack came in response to Israeli violations and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The parties had reached a ceasefire in November 2024, but Israel has continued to carry out daily attacks across Lebanon in the more than 15 months since.