Despite last week’s three-week extension to the ceasefire, brokered by President Trump, Israel has vowed that it will continue attacking Hezbollah targets “forcefully” in Lebanon.
Four people were killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Saturday, after Israel claimed Hezbollah had violated the ceasefire by firing rockets into Israel.
Even though the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has led to a significant reduction in hostilities, clashes have continued in the Israeli-controlled “buffer zone” in the south of Lebanon.
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Iran considers the ceasefire to be a precondition of a peace deal with the US.
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According to Infowars: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a brief statement saying Israeli forces had been instructed to continuing attacking Hezbollah targets “forcefully.”
Reuters reports, “The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had struck loaded rocket launchers belonging to Hezbollah in three locations in southern Lebanon overnight and targeted several Hezbollah fighters in separate strikes. It said later in the day that it had also struck facilities used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces in southern Lebanon.
“It was unclear whether the deaths reported by the state news agency were linked to those Israeli strikes.”
On Friday, a day after the ceasefire was extended, a Hezbollah politician in Lebanon said the it was effectively meaningless.
In related news, scheduled peace talks in Pakistan between the US and Iran collapsed before they even took place.
President Trump canceled his plan to send US special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan, saying it was unclear who was in charge of negotiations on the Iranian side.
“I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going to Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday.
“Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’ Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”
President Trump suggested the Iranians were “fighting not to be the leader, because we knocked out two levels of leaders.”
“But I’ll deal with whoever we have to,” Trump added.
“But there’s no reason to wait two days, have people traveling for 16, 17 hours, and we’re not doing it that way.”
The President spoke to reporters as he was boarding Air Force One on Saturday night, to travel from Florida to Washington DC for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“They gave us a paper that should have been better and interestingly, immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump said.
The President did not reveal any specifics about the deal offered, but said he would not budge in his determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Trump said the Iranians “offered a lot” with regard to their nuclear ambitions but “not enough.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, was already in Pakistan on Saturday, ahead of the talks.
He said he “shared Iran’s position concerning [a] workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran,” but that it still wasn’t clear if the US “is truly serious about diplomacy.”
President Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran last week in order to continue seeking a resolution to the conflict, but maintained the naval blockade of Iran’s ports on the Strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command claims 37 vessels have been redirected since the blockade began.
