Iran closes Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon
A pro-government demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during a gathering following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with the US and Israel in Tehran, Iran (Francisco Seco/AP)
Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again on Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, casting doubt over whether an already precarious ceasefire to end more than a month of war will hold.
The US and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the agreement, and world leaders expressed relief, even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries.
Israel also intensified its attacks in Lebanon, hitting several commercial and residential areas in Beirut without warning.
At least 112 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in one of the deadliest days in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
The fresh violence threatened to scuttle what US Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
“Aggression towards Lebanon is aggression towards Iran,” General Seyed Majid Mousavi, aerospace commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, wrote on X.
He warned that Iranian forces were preparing a “heavy response” without revealing details.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said American and Israeli forces had achieved a “capital V military victory” and that the Iranian military no longer posed a significant threat to US forces or the region.
The Iranian military said the country forced Israel and the U.S. to accept its “proposed conditions and surrender”.
Even before the new attacks, much about the ceasefire agreement was unclear as the sides presented vastly different visions of the terms.
But the details were not clear, nor was it known whether vessels would feel safe using the channel or whether ship traffic had resumed.
It also was unclear whether any other country agreed to this condition.
Pakistan, which helped to mediate the deal, and others said fighting would pause in Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
Israel said it would not, and strikes hit Beirut on Wednesday.
The fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes- the elimination of which were major objectives for the US and Israel in going to war — also remained unclear.
Mr Trump said the US would work with Iran to remove buried enriched uranium, though Iran did not confirm that.
In the streets of Tehran, pro-government demonstrators screamed: “Death to America, death to Israel, death to compromisers!” after the ceasefire announcement and burned American and Israeli flags.
The chants underscored the anger animating hard-liners, who have been preparing for what many assumed would be an apocalyptic battle with the US.
Mr Trump warned on Tuesday that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if a deal was not reached.
Mr Trump initially said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point plan that could help end the war the US launched with Israel on February 28.
But when a version in Farsi emerged that indicated Iran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium — which is key to building a nuclear weapon — Mr Trump called it fraudulent without elaborating.
Mr Vance later said the deal was being misrepresented within Iran, though he did not offer details.
Iran’s demands for ending the war include a withdrawal of US combat forces from the region, the lifting of sanctions, and the release of its frozen assets.
In his post Wednesday, Mr Trump said: “We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran.”
It was not clear if other Western nations would agree to that, and the other points are likely nonstarters.
United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres’s personal envoy arrived in Iran for talks on “the way forward”.
Pakistan said talks to seek a permanent end to the war could begin in Islamabad as soon as Friday.
Mr Trump told The New York Post that in-person talks would happen “very soon”.
Israel backed the US ceasefire with Iran, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal does not cover fighting against Hezbollah.
Mr Trump told PBS News Hour that Lebanon was not included in the ceasefire deal “because of Hezbollah”.
Israeli chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir said Israel will continue to “utilise every operational opportunity” to strike Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets within 10 minutes Wednesday across Lebanon, the largest wave of strikes since March 1.
While Iran could not match the sophistication of US and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its ability to control the Strait of Hormuz proved a tremendous strategic advantage.
Iranian attacks and threats deterred many commercial ships from passing through the waterway, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime.
That roiled the world economy and raised the pressure on Mr Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.
The ceasefire may formalise a system of charging fees in the strait that Iran instituted — and give it a new source of revenue.
The plan allows for both Iran and Oman to charge ships, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations they were directly involved in.
The official said Iran would use the money it raised for reconstruction.
That would upend decades of precedent treating the strait as an international waterway that was free to transit and will likely not be acceptable to the Gulf Arab states, which also need to rebuild after repeated Iranian attacks targeting their oil fields.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said passage through the strait would be allowed under Iranian military management — further clouding the picture of who would be allowed to transit the waterway.
News of the ceasefire sent stock markets surging worldwide, and oil prices plunged back toward 90 dollars (ÂŁ66) per barrel.
US-Israeli strikes have battered Iran and its leadership, but they have not entirely eliminated the threats posed by Tehran’s nuclear programme, its ballistic missiles or its support for regional proxies, like Hezbollah.
The US and Israel said addressing those threats was a key justification for going to war.
Mr Trump said on Wednesday that the US would work with Iran to “dig up and remove” enriched uranium that was buried under joint US-Israeli strikes in June.
He added that none of the material had been touched since.
Any retrieval is expected to be an intensive undertaking.
There was no confirmation from Iran on that.
Mr Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday that the US would do “something like” last June’s joint strikes with Israel on Iranian nuclear sites if the country refuses to surrender its enriched uranium voluntarily.
Tehran insisted for years that its nuclear programme was peaceful, although it enriched uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.
Iran referred to its nuclear programme differently in two versions of the ceasefire plan that it released.
The version in Farsi included the phrase “acceptance of enrichment” for its nuclear programme – that phrase was missing in English versions shared by Iranian diplomats with journalists.
Mr Hegseth said the US military has done its part “for now” but stands ready to ensure Iran complies all the ceasefire’s terms.
Shortly after the ceasefire announcement, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all issued warnings about incoming missiles from Iran.
That fire stopped for a time, then hostilities appeared to restart.
An oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island came under attack, according to Iranian state television.
Its report said that firefighters were working to contain the blaze but no one had been hurt.
It did not say who launched the attack.
The island is home to one of the terminals that Iran uses to export oil and gas.
A short time later, the UAE’s air defences fired at an incoming Iranian missile barrage.
Kuwait’s military forces, meanwhile, responded to an “extensive wave” of drone attacks.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted nine drones.
Kuwaiti authorities said three power and water desalination plants have been severely damaged after 28 Iranian drones were launched on the oil-rich country on Wednesday.
More than 1,900 people had been killed in Iran as of late March, but the government has not updated the war’s toll for days.
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