Iran halting indirect talks with US over Israel's Lebanon incursion, Tasnim says

REUTERS

Published :
Jun 01, 2026 21:17
Updated :
Jun 01, 2026 21:17


People walk on a street near a mural featuring an image of the late Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, June 1, 2026. Photo : Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran is halting indirect negotiations with the U.S. after Israel ordered troops to push deeper into Lebanon to battle Tehran-backed Hezbollah, the Iranian news agency Tasnim said on Monday, complicating diplomatic efforts to end three months of war.

Tasnim said the Islamic Republic's ‌negotiating team was stopping exchanging messages with Washington through mediators over attacks on Lebanon, where the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has reignited Israel's conflict with Hezbollah.

The move poses a further obstacle to hopes of a swift end to the crisis, after Iran said it had attacked a U.S. air base following weekend U.S. strikes on Iranian military targets that put further strain on a fragile ceasefire.

Oil prices rose more than $5 a barrel after the Tasnim report.

U.S. President Donald Trump had earlier reiterated on social media that he believed Tehran wants to reach a deal. But hopes of a breakthrough were tempered by comments by Iranian officials criticising the "constantly changing" U.S. negotiating stance.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also raised Lebanon, where another ceasefire is in place, as a stumbling block.

"Violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The U.S. and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation," he said ⁠on X.

FRAYING CEASEFIRES

The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. It has also caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global supply route for oil and liquefied natural gas.

Tasnim said Iran and the Resistance Front, which includes its Shi'ite allies in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, had set an agenda to completely block the strait and activate other fronts, including the Bab El Mandeb Strait, to "punish" Israel and its supporters.

If the Houthis, Iran's allies in Yemen, open a new front in the conflict, one obvious target would be the Bab El Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen, a shipping chokepoint and narrow passageway that controls sea traffic towards the Suez Canal.

Referring to Iran's demands on Lebanon, Tasnim said "there will be no talks until Iran and the resistance's views on this matter are met."

Iran and the U.S. have sporadically traded blows despite their ceasefire, which has been in place since early April, while Pakistan has been trying to mediate a durable peace agreement.

The U.S. military said it had at the weekend struck Iranian air defences, a ground control station and two drones that were threatening ships after "aggressive Iranian actions", including shooting down a U.S. drone over international waters.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday it had targeted an air base used by the U.S. in response to an attack on southern Iran.

It did not identify the ‌base, but Kuwait activated ⁠air defences on Monday and denounced Iranian missile and drone attacks, which it said were undermining efforts to reduce tensions in the region.

U.S. forces intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait late on Sunday, the U.S. military said on Monday, adding that no American personnel were harmed.

STOP NEGATIVE 'CHIRPING', TRUMP SAYS

In a late-night social media post, U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran "really wants to make a deal".

He berated critics, including what he described as "seemingly unpatriotic Republicans", for negative “chirping” about the negotiations to end the conflict.

"Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!" he said.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei accused Washington on Monday of sending contradictory messages and said this would not work as a negotiating tactic.

"The other party is constantly changing its views and putting forward new ⁠or contradictory demands (...) it is natural that this situation will prolong negotiations," Baghaei said.

Baghaei said Iran viewed Israeli actions in the region, including in Lebanon, as inseparable from those of the U.S.

SIDES AT ODDS ON SEVERAL ISSUES

Trump is under pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get U.S. gasoline prices down before November congressional elections, as voters show increasing frustration over rising prices. At the same time, he faces a potential backlash from Iran hawks in his own party over any concessions to Tehran.

Trump has said his main aim in the ⁠war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran denies planning to develop a nuclear arsenal.

The sides are also at odds on other issues, such as Tehran's demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenue frozen in foreign banks. Iran also wants the U.S. to lift a blockade of its ports, imposed after Tehran effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the war.

Israel's war in ⁠Lebanon with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia is another impediment to a deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the battle against Hezbollah.

Netanyahu on Monday ordered the military to attack targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. His office accused Hezbollah of repeated violations of a ceasefire agreed in late April.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Netanyahu on the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and has proposed a plan to allow for "gradual de-escalation," a U.S. official said.​

Israel, Hezbollah trade blows
Israel-Lebanon talks begin in Washington

Agence France-Presse . Beirut, Lebanon 03 June, 2026, 00:20


A woman looks at the damage inside a hospital room near the site where an Israeli airstrike struck a building the previous day in the southern port city of Tyre on June 2, 2026. | AFP photo

Israel continued to strike southern Lebanon on Tuesday as Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked its troops there despite an apparent Washington-brokered de-escalation deal and a fourth round of US-hosted talks between Lebanon and Israel.

US president Donald Trump had announced an agreement to halt some attacks on Monday, but neither side has publicly accepted it and Israel’s defence minister said the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs remained potential targets.

The deal, according to a statement from the Lebanese embassy in Washington, would, at first, stop Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory.

The fourth meeting between representatives of the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations, is taking place at the State Department and is scheduled to last two days.

Participants include Israel’s ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese envoy Nada Hamadeh Moawad, as well as Daniel Holler, a senior advisor to secretary of state Marco Rubio.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli strikes across the south on Tuesday.

Hezbollah meanwhile said it attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanese lands they occupy, but has not claimed attacks in Israel.

The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles from Lebanon, without reporting any injuries.

Near Sidon, in the south, rescuers recovered the bodies of six members of the same family, including two children and a woman, following an Israeli strike.

Further south in the historic city of Tyre, the Jabal Amel hospital, severely damaged by an Israeli attack nearby on Monday that wounded 39 staffers, resumed operations.

Lebanon’s health ministry said on Tuesday that Israeli attacks had killed at least 3,468 people since March 2 — an increase of 35 compared to Monday.

At least 26 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed over the same time frame.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, and Tehran has insisted that Lebanon be included in any peace deal with Washington.

Recent days have seen a dramatic escalation in fighting and bombardment as Israeli troops staged their deepest ground offensive into Lebanon in two decades.

Citing what he called Hezbollah’s ‘repeated violations’ of a ceasefire officially in place since April 17 but never respected by either side, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had

ordered strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold.

According to Axios, however, Trump called Netanyahu ‘fucking crazy’ and accused him of putting peace talks with Iran at risk.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Washington ‘endorsed this principle’ that his country would hit the suburbs if Hezbollah continued firing at Israel.

‘If Israeli towns continue to be attacked, we will evacuate and strike the Shiite Dahiyeh quarter in Beirut, Hezbollah’s stronghold,’ Katz said.

In the southern suburbs, which many residents had fled the day before, many shops were closed on Tuesday, while a military drone flew over the area at low altitude, according to an AFP journalist.

Resident Layla Shehab, 35, decided to return as ‘we found the situation has calmed down a bit’.

According to Lebanese authorities, Hezbollah would no longer fire into Israel under the agreement revealed by Trump, while the Israeli military would spare Beirut’s southern suburbs.

An adviser to Lebanese speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, said that he would guarantee that the group would respect a ‘global ceasefire’, if one were agreed.

Lebanese prime minister Nawaf Salam said it was ‘necessary to consolidate the ceasefire’ during the negotiations.

‘Negotiations are the least costly choice for Lebanon,’ he reiterated.

Hezbollah is vehemently opposed to the talks, while Israel wants the group disarmed.​