Iran announced today that it has suspended talks with the United States over ending the war in response to Israel’s brutal escalation in southern Lebanon. “Given the continuation of the crimes of the Zionist entity in Lebanon and considering that Lebanon was part of the preconditions for the ceasefire, and that this ceasefire has been violated on all fronts, the Iranian negotiating team will suspend talks and the exchange of texts through intermediaries,” Tasnim News reported.
Earlier in the day, a statement had come from Israel Acting Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordering Lebanese to evacuate parts of Beirut, because the IDF would start conducting a bombing campaign there. This came in the context of a surge of IDF northward in Lebanon.
Within hours of Tasnim’s announcement of suspension ot the U.S.-Iran indirect talks–which had been praised all weekend by President Trump, he was apparently prompted to get on the phone to Israel. “I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,”he wrote on Truth Social. “Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”
Netanyahu, according to Israeli media, then backed down from striking Beirut.
