US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. The initial ten-day truce, which took effect last Friday, was set to expire on Monday. The extension follows a second round of talks between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors at the White House, which Trump described as having gone "very well," though he acknowledged that both sides "do have Hezbollah to think about."
The talks mark the first direct diplomatic engagement between Israel and Lebanon in decades, a development that Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, opposes. Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that "the United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah."
Speaking alongside Trump in the Oval Office, the ambassadors of both Israel and Lebanon thanked the US president for his mediation. Trump also announced plans to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Washington over the coming weeks.
Strait of Hormuz Standoff Intensifies
Simultaneously, tensions between the United States and Iran remain high, with the standoff in the Persian Gulf escalating. Earlier on Thursday, Trump ordered the US military to "shoot and kill" any Iranian vessels attempting to mine the Strait of Hormuz. The strait, a critical chokepoint for global oil shipments, has become a flashpoint as both sides continue to seize each other's vessels.
Trump told reporters he does not feel rushed to end the conflict with Iran, despite ongoing negotiations. "But I don't want to rush myself. You know, because every story says, 'oh, Trump is under time pressure.' I'm not. No, no. You know who's under time pressure? They are," he said, adding that Iran is in "turmoil" and struggling to determine who is "leading the country." A spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry dismissed the claim as "a form of deflection," insisting the country remains united.
Trump further asserted that the United States has "complete control" of the strait and decides whether it remains open or closed. He explained that he has refused to allow Iran to reopen the strait because he does not "want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing." Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, previously stated that reopening the strait would be "impossible" while the US naval blockade remains in place, calling it a "blatant violation" of the ceasefire.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X late Wednesday that Tehran is open to "dialogue and agreement," but accused the US of hindering negotiations through "breach of commitments, blockade and threats." Meanwhile, Israel has signaled readiness for a broader conflict. Defence Minister Israel Katz stated on Thursday, "The IDF is prepared both defensively and offensively, and the targets are marked. We are waiting for a green light from the United States."
The European Union, which has long sought stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf, faces a complex diplomatic landscape. The extension of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire offers a temporary reprieve, but the escalating US-Iran standoff threatens to draw in European allies and disrupt energy markets. The bloc's foreign policy chief has previously called for restraint, and the situation in the Strait of Hormuz could have significant implications for European energy security, given that a substantial portion of the EU's oil imports transit the waterway.
In a related development, the funeral of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was held in the village of Baysariyeh in southern Lebanon. Khalil was killed Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike while sheltering in a house after a nearby car was hit. Lebanese health officials reported that Israeli forces opened fire on an ambulance responding to the scene, preventing rescuers from reaching Khalil for several hours. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the incident, writing on X, "Targeting journalists, obstructing access to them by relief teams, and even targeting their locations again after these teams arrive constitutes described war crimes." The Israeli military denied deliberately targeting journalists or firing on rescuers and said it is reviewing the incident.
