Iran threatened a military response. Trump reacted on social media: “We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon” and “Let’s not blow it!”
Trump, who had said the deal could be signed Sunday, has pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop hitting Lebanon hard while a deal is near, but the prime minister has defied him.
Netanyahu’s office said the strikes were in response to Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel. Israel’s military said Hezbollah launched three projectiles, releasing footage where an audible boom was followed by rising smoke. There was no immediate comment from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
“Israel will not tolerate firing into its territory,” Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. The military later said it was preparing for potential incoming fire in the coming hours.
Trump described the attack on northern Israel as “very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process.”
An Associated Press photographer at the scene in Beirut said a five-story apartment building with shops on the ground floor was struck. The two lowest floors were the most heavily damaged. Residents of the southern suburbs, many of whom had returned home after weeks of relative calm, could be seen fleeing.
Iran wants a ceasefire deal to include the fighting in Lebanon. It’s unclear whether that would mean Israeli forces’ withdrawal and when. Most of Hezbollah’s attacks in recent weeks have targeted Israeli troops inside Lebanon.
“Without a doubt, these crimes will not go unanswered,” said Gen. Mohammad Jafar Asadi, deputy commander of Iran’s Joint Command Headquarters, the official Mizan news agency reported.
Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran on Sunday to finalize the agreement, according to two regional officials.
The deal is expected to be signed electronically, without an in-person ceremony, though it’s unclear when or how the signing will take place.
Iran’s government warned that any division at home over the deal weakens its negotiating position, and those criticizing negotiators are taking aim at a national decision. Iranians must recognize that no war lasts forever, spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told the state-run IRNA news agency.
The officials described Pakistan’s effort leading the negotiations, struggling for months to keep both sides from walking out on multiple occasions.
Under the deal being discussed, U.S. and Israel appear to have fallen short of their original goals of destroying Iran’s missile and nuclear programs and ending its support for armed proxies in the region. It is not clear how the deal will address these issues, or if they will be part of the final agreement.
Iran’s nuclear program and highly enriched uranium have long been at the center of tensions with the U.S. and Israel and an international source of concern. Trump on social media asserted Saturday that “when all is calm,” the U.S. would go in and “downblend and destroy” the enriched uranium in Iran or in the U.S.
Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful and has not publicly committed to giving up the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under three nuclear sites that were badly damaged by U.S. strikes last year.
