The number of victims of the Israeli attack on Lebanon is rising. Hezbollah announced retaliation
“Three clauses of the agreement have been openly and clearly violated. In such a situation, a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations are absurd,” said Mohammad Bager Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, in a post published overnight on social media. The politician explained that the call for a ceasefire in Lebanon was ignored, a drone appeared in Iranian airspace, and Iran's right to enrich uranium was not recognized.
On Thursday morning, Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Tehran, announced that it had fired rockets at the Manara settlement in northern Israel in response to “Israeli violations” of the ceasefire in the form of the Israeli army's bombing of Lebanon on Wednesday, the heaviest since the beginning of the conflict, killing over 250 people. “This response will continue until Israeli-American aggression against our country ceases,” the group said in a statement. Israeli media reported the interception of one missile.
Traffic suspended in the Strait of Hormuz
At the same time, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the suspension of ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israel's actions. Maritime traffic data confirms that the transit has ceased and one of the tankers has been forced to turn back.
The main axis of the dispute remains the scope of the arrangements for a two-week truce. The White House and Israel are adamant that the ceasefire does not include Lebanon. Iranian authorities, however, argue that it was part of the agreement. The growing tension may directly threaten the talks scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Pakistan, whose Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, plays the role of a key mediator.
The US-Iran ceasefire was intended to stop escalation in the Middle East. Open war broke out on February 28, just two days after the failure of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program and the US-Israeli attack on Iranian territory.
