Israel and Lebanon have agreed to implement a ceasefire to end hostilities, the Trump administration said Wednesday, boosting hopes for a broader deal to end the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Tehran, which had conditioned any deal with the United States in part on an end to fighting between Israel and Lebanon, previously struck Kuwait, damaging its airport and injuring dozens, in what it described as a response to U.S. military strikes near the Strait of Hormuz.
The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon is contingent on a complete ceasefire by Iran-aligned Hezbollah and the evacuation of all its operatives from the South Litani sector, said a joint statement issued by the US State Department following negotiations in Washington.
“Both sides agreed, under the leadership of the United States, to progress rapidly in the creation of pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory, to the exclusion of all non-state actors,” they said.
Lebanon and Israel agreed to continue direct negotiations to build confidence and resolve other outstanding issues.
The two men will meet again to hold political and security discussions during the week of June 22 with a view to reaching a comprehensive agreement, according to the statement.
The two sides agreed to a ceasefire last month, but hostilities continued. Israel invaded Lebanon in March in pursuit of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which fired across the border in support of Tehran.
The attacks on Kuwait and across the strait are the latest to test a fragile ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran, sending oil prices up nearly 2 percent as the strait remains largely closed more than three months after the launch of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Flights at Kuwait International Airport were suspended after an Iranian drone and missile attack damaged airport facilities and diplomatic missions, killing one person and injuring more than 60 others, Kuwaiti authorities and state media said.
Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways later resumed flights after taking safety measures, the civil aviation authority said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they did not fire on Kuwait’s airport and blamed the destruction on U.S. interceptor missiles that failed to hit their targets, according to Iranian state media.
The US military said this was not accurate and that Iranian drones had deliberately targeted the airport.
Earlier, Iranian media reported that the Revolutionary Guards attacked the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and a US air base, as well as a ship identified as Panaya. US Central Command denied its bases had been hit and said Iranian ballistic missiles had failed to hit their targets in the region.
Centcom said it carried out a new round of “defensive strikes” in southern Iran, targeting Iranian missile launch sites and boats seeking to lay mines, and carried out strikes on the island of Qeshm, near the Strait of Hormuz, after Iranian attack attempts.
Ceasefire strained by outbreaks of violence
Since the start of US and Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28, Tehran has repeatedly attacked targets in the Gulf region, which is home to US military bases.
Hostilities have periodically resumed in recent weeks despite a ceasefire reached in early April, as the United States pushed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of the world’s pre-war shipments of oil and liquefied natural gas.
Last week, Iran and the United States reported progress toward an initial tentative deal to end the war and reopen the strait, but the two sides have yet to sign the deal, which would leave more complex negotiations for later.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen on Wednesday that the talks had not been interrupted but that no progress had been made.
In addition to conditioning an agreement on the end of the fighting in Lebanon, Tehran also wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenues, waivers from sanctions on crude exports, the lifting of the American blockade on its ports and continued influence over the strait.
US President Donald Trump, who is under pressure to lower fuel prices, has said his top priority is preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran says its atomic program is for peaceful purposes. In a podcast interview published Wednesday, Trump said Iran had agreed not to have a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei was involved in the negotiations.
Later Wednesday, Trump suggested that progress could be made in negotiations with Iran as early as this weekend.
“If it happens, it could happen over the weekend,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, without giving further details on what he expects to happen in that time frame.
Trump said the parties were working to separate the issue of reopening the Strait from the conflict in Lebanon.
Israel continues its strikes in Lebanon
The war has left thousands dead, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, while causing global economic hardship by severely disrupting energy supplies and other shipping.
It also sparked the latest round of conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and targeted a car just south of Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said, while Israel said it had intercepted a hostile aircraft likely fired by Hezbollah.
Araqchi said Iran would respond decisively if Israel attacked Beirut.
In his comments on the podcast, Trump acknowledged calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “crazy” during an apparently expletive-filled phone exchange about the fighting in Lebanon as he sought a deal on the broader war.
“At one point I said, Bibi, we have to stop this. We have to stop this,” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
Netanyahu said CNBC in an interview, he said that he and Trump sometimes had “tactical disagreements” but agreed on key issues regarding Iran.
