Israel, Lebanon extend ceasefire as Trump seeks ‘best deal’ with Iran

DUBAI/WASHINGTON – Israel and Lebanon extended their ceasefire for three weeks at a meeting at the White House brokered by US President Donald Trump, who said he was prepared to wait for “the best deal” to end his conflict with Iran.

Fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has been one of a number of sticking points to resolving the wider eight-week regional conflict, along with Iran’s nuclear ambitions and control of the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

Mr Trump said he was in no rush to reach a peace agreement and wanted it to be “everlasting”, while continuing to assert that the US had a clear upper hand in the naval stand-off in the strait.

A day after Iran flaunted its tightened grip over the key shipping corridor, the US leader dismissed the threat posed by Iran’s “little wise-guy ships”.

He said he believed Tehran was hamstrung from making a deal because its leadership was in turmoil, after several senior political and military figures were killed in US-Israeli strikes that began on Feb 28.

On April 23, he said the US Navy has orders to “shoot and kill” Iranian boats laying mines in the strait and that the US could knock out in a day any refurbishing of weapons that Iran might have made during a ceasefire in place since April 8.

But navigation in the passage remained effectively blocked. The Iranian capture of two huge cargo ships was a reminder that the US was struggling to keep control of the strait, and Tehran continued to cause trouble for oil markets and pose major strains to the global economy.

The Philippine government said 15 Filipinos were on the two vessels and believed to be safe and that it expected the ships to be cleared soon.

Container shipping group Hapag-Lloyd said on April 24 that one of its ships had made it through the strait, but did not have any information on the circumstances or timing. Before the war, around 130 vessels crossed the strait each day.

Oil prices resumed their rise on April 24 with the blockade of the strait unresolved and the fate of a lapsed ceasefire unclear since Mr Trump announced a unilateral extension at the 11th hour.

The US dollar was moving closely with oil prices, on track for its first weekly gain in three weeks, with dampened hopes for an immediate easing of tensions leading to increased safe-haven demand.

Iranian unity

Iran’s use of a swarm of small, fast boats to seize the container ships cast doubts on Mr Trump’s suggestions that US forces had disabled its naval threats and underscored Tehran’s evolving tactics in the strait as it countered US interception of Iran-linked oil tankers and other vessels.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, on April 23 rejected Mr Trump’s claim of disarray in the leadership, describing it as “the enemy’s media operations” to maliciously undermine Iranian unity and security.

“Unity will become stronger and more solid, and enemies will become weaker and more humiliated,” he said in a post on social media platform X, as he remained out of the public eye since taking over from his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by US strikes in the early days of the war that began on Feb 28.

The prolonged conflict has deepened the fissure between the US and NATO, with Mr Trump repeatedly criticising members for failing to support US operations.

Washington is now weighing punishing “difficult” countries, such as Spain, according to policy options being reviewed on the bloc, a US official told Reuters.

The options are detailed in a note expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant the US access, basing and overflight rights for the Iran war, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Mr Trump said this week that he would indefinitely extend what had been a two-week ceasefire with Iran to allow for further peace talks, which have yet to be scheduled.

“Don’t rush me,” he said when asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal. “I want to make the best deal... I want to have it everlasting.”

He ruled out the use of nuclear weapons, telling reporters that they were unnecessary because the US had “decimated” Iran with conventional arms.

“No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody,” Mr Trump said when asked by a reporter at the White House.

Peace talks tentatively scheduled for Pakistan collapsed earlier this week, with neither side showing up. The Pakistani capital remained in lockdown on April 24, but there were no indications that the talks would be revived soon.

Deadly week

The war in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March to root out Iran’s Hezbollah allies after the militant group fired across the border, has run in parallel with the wider Iran war, and Tehran says a ceasefire there is a precondition for talks.

The extension of the ceasefire in Lebanon followed some of the deadliest days there since an earlier deal on April 16 to halt fighting.

Israeli forces pounded Hezbollah targets on April 23 in southern Lebanon, after they said militants had attacked troops with rockets and a drone and fired rockets towards northern Israel.

Israel has sought to make common cause with Lebanon’s government over Hezbollah, which was founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and which Beirut has been seeking to disarm peacefully for the past year.

The group was not present at the ceasefire talks in Washington. REUTERS