Iran war live: Lebanon truce extended; Trump says time not on Tehran’s side

Iran war news: Lebanon truce extended 72 hours as Trump warns Tehran clock running out

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Beirut agreed to a fresh 72-hour ceasefire with Israel early Friday, buying fragile calm for southern Lebanon while U.S. President Donald Trump declared that “time is not on Iran’s side.”

The extension, announced at 3 a.m. local time by Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri, came minutes after Trump spoke to reporters on Air Force One. He offered no details but said “every day that passes weakens Tehran and its friends.”

The original 60-hour pause had halted Israeli ground advances near the Litani River and stopped Hezbollah’s heaviest rocket barrages since October. Diplomats in Amman warned that another breakdown could ignite a wider front involving Syria and Iraq’s Iran-backed militias.

Israel’s security cabinet voted 7-3 to accept the U.S.–French proposal, conditioned on Hezbollah withdrawing all “offensive units” north of the Litani, Israeli officials told reporters. The Shi’ite movement has not publicly responded, but two commanders in its southern sector said by phone they received orders “to hold fire unless attacked.”

Washington paired the extension with new Treasury designations against 15 Iranian firms accused of shipping drone engines to Russia, a move officials linked to “maximum pressure 2.0.” Trump, returning from a rally in Michigan, said the measures “choke off the money that feeds terror from Beirut to Gaza.” He gave no timeline for further military action, yet added “if Iran wants talks, the door is cracked, not open.”

Lebanese hospitals tallied 1,847 dead since Israel’s ground incursion began 19 days ago, including 416 children, according to the health ministry. The toll does not include Hezbollah fighters, which the group does not disclose. In northern Israel, paramedics recorded 43 civilian deaths and 6 soldiers inside Lebanese territory.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei called the ceasefire “a tactical trap” and reaffirmed Tehran’s support for “Lebanon’s resistance.” State TV showed footage of IRGC commander Hossein Salami touring an underground missile base, though it gave no location or date. Israeli intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel said the video was “staged desperation” and claimed half of Iran’s long-range missile stockpile has been moved to civilian warehouses “making them easier targets.”

France pressed the UN Security Council to adopt a draft resolution creating a 10-km weapons-free zone south of the Litani and expanding the UNIFIL mandate. Russia’s deputy envoy dismissed the text as “imperial micromanagement,” delaying a vote until at least Monday. China’s mission signaled it will abstain, citing “lack of consensus among regional parties.”

Oil markets shrugged off the extension; Brent crude slipped 42 cents to $74.18 a barrel in London trading. Shipping data showed only 2 of 22 scheduled tankers diverted from the Eastern Mediterranean, suggesting insurers judged the truce credible for now. Lebanon’s central bank burned through $340 million of reserves this month to subsidize fuel imports, Governor Karim Souaid told Reuters, warning that a prolonged war could exhaust the remainder before year-end.

Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc signalled privately it wants a month-long halt to allow civilian returns, lawmakers who met them said. Israeli channels cited unnamed security sources seeking “a deal that keeps Hezbollah north of the river forever.” Both demands collide over who patrols the frontier; Washington proposes joint Lebanese Army–UNIFIL patrols, a formula Israel accepted in 2006 but later abandoned.

Background

The current eruption began on October 1 when Israel launched “Operation Northern Arrows” after months of escalating cross-border fire that displaced 96,000 Israelis and 115,000 Lebanese. Hezbollah joined the fray a day after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 2023, tying down Israeli forces in a second front. Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, mandated that only the Lebanese Army and UN peacekeepers operate south of the Litani, yet Hezbollah has built attack tunnels and rocket pits there ever since. Iran funds and arms the movement to the tune of an estimated $700 million a year, seeing it as a regional deterrent against Israel or U.S. strikes on its nuclear sites.

Tehran’s own nuclear advances are central to the U.S. calculus. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported last week that Iran now possesses uranium enriched to 60 percent, a short technical step from weapons-grade. Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA pact during his first term and re-imposed sweeping sanctions; indirect talks in Oman during the spring stalled over Tehran’s demand that any future agreement bind future U.S. administrations. Israeli officials say the current Lebanon flare-up serves Iranian purposes by shifting global attention away from centrifuge halls at Natanz and Fordow.

What’s Next

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Tel Aviv on Saturday to press for a truce rollover lasting at least 30 days, diplomats said, while French President Emmanuel Macron will host Lebanese leaders in Paris on Monday to secure army deployment pledges. If the ceasefire collapses again, Israeli officials have prepared plans to push another 15 km north to the Awali River, a thrust that could place Israeli troops within 20 km of Beirut’s southern suburbs and risk direct confrontation with the Lebanese Army.

Trump’s warning that “time is not on Tehran’s side” hints at a shrinking diplomatic window; European officials worry the administration could green-light Israeli strikes on Iranian energy terminals if nuclear talks stay frozen past the November U.S. mid-term elections. For now, all sides appear content to test whether 72 hours of uneasy quiet can stretch into something more durable, even as rocket sirens sounded briefly across northern Israel minutes after the extension took hold, a reminder that the next barrage is only a miscalculation away.