Trump Says Iran Deal Close Despite Israeli Strike on Beirut
President Donald Trump criticised an Israeli strike on Lebanon that could complicate attempts to finalise a framework deal between the United States and Iran on Sunday on ending their war, but said an agreement was nonetheless close.
Iranian negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf had earlier said Israel’s attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which Israel said targeted Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, showed the US lacked the will or ability to fulfil its commitments.
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should stand down.”
“If you lack the will and ability to fulfil your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible,” Qalibaf wrote on X, in an apparent reference to peace moves.
Mohammad Jafar Assadi, deputy commander of Iran’s top joint military command, was quoted by state media as saying Israeli “crimes” in Beirut’s southern suburbs would not go unanswered.
Trump and mediator Pakistan had said on Saturday they expected the deal would be signed on Sunday, but Tehran cast doubt over the timing even before the strike on Beirut.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that, under the terms of the draft deal, the US would agree to release $25 billion of frozen Iranian assets, while Tehran would agree not to produce or acquire nuclear weapons.
Qatari negotiators flew to Tehran on Sunday morning as part of an effort to finalise the agreement, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that Hezbollah had launched three projectiles towards communities in northern Israel in violation of a ceasefire in Lebanon. Israel then fired at what it called Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood of Beirut in an attack that Lebanon’s civil defence said killed three people. The Israeli military claimed that its forces had killed a senior Hezbollah commander allegedly involved in the kidnapping and killing of five American soldiers in Iraq in 2007. Ali Mussa Daqduq was killed on Friday in a “precise strike” south of the Litani River in Lebanon, the military said.
“Over the past several years, Daqduq led much of Hezbollah’s operational planning against IDF soldiers along the Lebanon border,” the military said. “In 2007, he was imprisoned by US forces after orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of five American soldiers” in Iraq, the military claimed.
Fox News quoted an unidentified diplomat involved in the talks as saying the Israeli strikes were complicating efforts to finalise the U.S.-Iran deal, and describing them as an attempt to sabotage those efforts. Israel did not immediately respond to the assertion.
In Sunday’s post, Trump said there “should be no more attacks by Israel anywhere in Lebanon, but there should also be no more attacks by any other party, including Hezbollah, against Israel”.
President Trump said that a peace deal with Iran is still on track to be signed within hours, despite an Israeli strike on Beirut that he said had delayed the plan, AFP reports, citing Axios. “It shook it up. It delayed the signing by a few hours. It was supposed to be now. Now it is scheduled for a few hours from now,” Trump said in a phone call to the Axios news outlet.
Trump fumed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the attack on Beirut, saying, “It is so bad — I couldn’t believe it. An hour before we are supposed to sign the deal.”
Trump told Fox News he will ask Iran not to respond to Israeli strikes in Beirut.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, has threatened a “strong response” following Israel’s deadly attacks on Beirut today, Al Jazeera reports. “Today’s crime by the Zionist regime in Dahiyeh, Beirut, once again proved the US is weak without credibility, as it is not even capable of controlling this illegitimate regime. A strong response is coming,” Azizi said.
Iran’s military commander, Ali Abdullahi, says the country’s resistance has “marked a new chapter” in international affairs and established Iran as an “influential global power”, Al Jazeera reports, citing Iran’s Mehr news agency. In a message to the nation, he was quoted as saying that its military capabilities are more powerful than before and soldiers have a “finger on the trigger”, ready to shoot at the “enemy’s heart”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a call with US counterpart Donald Trump, has discussed the wars in Ukraine and Iran and an upcoming visit of Washington’s envoys to Russia, AFP reports, citing the Kremlin. “The conversation focused on the situation surrounding the memorandum of understanding being drafted between the United States and Iran. Donald Trump said an agreement is close,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that the country’s highest security authority supports the “path of dialogue”, after hardliners criticised Tehran’s negotiating team in talks with the United States, AFP reports. “The Supreme National Security Council has concluded that the path of dialogue should be pursued,” Pezeshkian said in a meeting with media executives, according to the presidency’s website. He added that the council was in charge of “decisions regarding war and negotiations”.
Draft terms of the agreement indicate the US would begin releasing frozen Iranian assets and waive sanctions on its oil exports, in return for Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s nuclear programme would then be addressed during a 60-day period of talks. The senior Iranian official said on Sunday that Iran agreed to maintain the nuclear status quo, including no uranium enrichment or expanding nuclear facilities, until a final deal was reached.
A U.S. official said the agreement would ultimately lead to the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear programme, with its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to be destroyed and removed. The senior Iranian official said the draft deal would allow Iran, which denies seeking a nuclear bomb, to dilute its enriched uranium inside the country.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the end of the U.S. naval blockade on Iran would “start immediately” once an accord was signed, but the timing would depend on the strait reopening. He said the U.S. had the capacity to clear the strait to ensure safe transit for ships. Hegseth, speaking on CBS News’ Face the Nation, said the U.S. planned to keep enough military force in the region to “make sure the military option is still there” during negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme.
While U.S. and Israeli bombing has heavily degraded Iran’s military-industrial base and damaged its military, experts say the war has entrenched the dominance of Iran’s hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. At pro-government rallies across Iran on Saturday night, residents and news agencies reported that hardliners opposed to the framework agreement loudly voiced their dissatisfaction. A resident in the northeastern city of Mashhad told Reuters that some protesters chanted “Death to the compromiser,” in an apparent reference to Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, and “Compromiser, resign, resign”.
