Iran truce on the rocks as Guards threaten ‘new fronts’

People gather at the site of an Israeli strike that hit near a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Negotiations to end the Mideast war appeared in deep trouble on Monday, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatening to open new fronts in the conflict hours after the US and Iran exchanged overnight strikes. Iran’s news agency Tasnim reported Tehran had suspended dialogue with mediators in protest at Israel’s expanding offensive in Lebanon.

Speaking to US broadcaster NBC, President Donald Trump said “I think it’s fine if they’re done talking”, adding that Tehran had not told Washington it was suspending negotiations. Weeks of indirect talks marked by threats and several waves of air strikes have so far failed to bring about an end to the war or the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas. The latest exchange of fire coincided with Israel expanding its ground offensive in Lebanon, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to push deeper into the country and instructing his military to strike “terror targets” in a south Beirut district.

Israel’s Arabic-language spokesman posted on X that residents of Dahiyeh should evacuate “to preserve their safety”, and AFP images showed huge traffic jams as residents tried to flee. The United States has backed Israel’s operations against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, while still trying to come to an agreement with Iran to end the war it launched in late February, and to reopen Hormuz and impose controls on Iran’s nuclear programme. But Iran again said on Monday it had not engaged in any nuclear negotiations and insisted that Israel must halt its offensive in Lebanon before any wider deal to end the war could be agreed.

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Ahead of a UN Security Council emergency meeting on Lebanon, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said: “We are deeply alarmed by the escalation in military activities across southern Lebanon and beyond.” The US naval blockade on Iran’s ports and the escalation in Lebanon were “clear evidence of US non-compliance with the ceasefire”, Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X. Late on Monday, Tasnim reported that “the Iranian negotiating team is suspending dialogues and exchange of texts through mediators”, blaming Israel’s actions in Lebanon.

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