President Trump threatened Sunday to resume bombing Iran unless Tehran keeps its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon from attacking Israel.
The president’s dire warning comes just hours after Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Switzerland to start nuclear talks with the Iranian regime.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social. “If they don’t, we will hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!”
Hezbollah and Iran have renewed fighting, threatening to undermine the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Iran. The fighting even delayed peace talks, which began Sunday after initially being scheduled for Friday.
A ceasefire in Lebanon has become a critical focus of the peace talks as Iran has made it one of their key conditions to strike a deal. The memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran declares “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.”
Fighting between Israel and Lebanon has continued since the memorandum of understanding was signed, bringing the death toll since Israel’s air and ground offensive on March 2 to more than 4,000.
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Hezbollah and Lebanon have both demanded a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, with the Lebanese government saying that it should come as part of the U.S.-Iranian negotiations rather than direct talks with Israel.
The Washington Times asked Mr. Vance on Thursday at a White House press conference what scale of an attack from Iran or its proxies it would take to get a reaction from the United States to resume bombing, and he said, “any attack, whatever its scale, is unacceptable under this agreement.”
On Saturday, Iranian officials closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil travels, over Israeli strikes in Lebanon, arguing it violated the ceasefire.
Mr. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistani army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir in Switzerland on Sunday. Pakistan has been mediating the conflict in the Middle East.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, …
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• Kerry Picket contributed to this report.
