US-Israel-Iran War News Live Updates: Iran slams US’ ‘game of good cop, bad cop’ as Israel strikes Lebanon ahead of peace deal
At least 2 people have been killed in an Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to Al Jazeera’s report citing Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA). (AP Photo)
The Israeli military says it conducted a “precise strike” on a Hezbollah command centre in Beirut, marking another escalation in the conflict with the Lebanese armed group. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have confirmed Israel’s latest strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying it was carried out in response to Hezbollah attacks. ‘Israel will not tolerate fire directed at its territory,’ the statement said, reiterating Israel’s position that attacks from Lebanon will be met with military action.
A senior Iranian official has detailed what Tehran says are the key elements of a draft memorandum of understanding with the United States, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz, easing sanctions and imposing temporary restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities. The draft agreement would require Tehran’s commitment not to produce or acquire nuclear weapons and maintain the current status of its nuclear programme until a final agreement is reached. According to the official, the draft would also require Iran to immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, while the United States would lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports.
What both sides said: Trump has framed the prospective deal in sweeping terms, saying Hormuz, a corridor facilitating transit of a large share of the world’s oil and gas, would open to all traffic as soon as it is signed, and predicting the US would eventually obtain Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. Iran’s position, conveyed through its foreign ministry, is narrower: officials have not disputed that an agreement is close, but have pushed back specifically on Trump’s insistence on a Sunday date, instead stating that signing could come within days. Tehran has also tied any wider truce to a halt in Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, a condition Israel has not accepted.
Latest developments
- Israel says it struck Hezbollah command centre in Beirut’s Dahiyeh
- Iran to halt nuclear enrichment under draft US agreement, official says
- Iran outlines draft US agreement covering Hormuz, sanctions relief and nuclear restrictions
- Trump says a deal to end the war could be signed as early as Sunday, and that the Strait of Hormuz will “open to all” shipping once it is signed.
- Trump claims the US will eventually obtain Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium as part of the agreement.
- Iran’s foreign ministry has rejected the Sunday signing timeline, saying a deal could come “in the coming days” instead.
- Israeli forces carried out fresh strikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, even as Iran insists any ceasefire must extend to the Lebanon front.
- Iranian state media announced that funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader killed in a US-Israeli strike on February 28, will begin in Tehran on July 4, with burial in Mashhad on July 9; his son Mojtaba Khamenei has led Iran since March.
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