Iran Closes Strait of Hormuz Again After Israel Kills At Least 182 People In A Day In Lebanon

A ceasefire deal to pause the war in Iran appeared to hang by a thread on Wednesday after the Islamic Republic closed the Strait of Hormuz again in response to a wave of Israeli attacks in Lebanon in which at least 182 people were killed.

The White House demanded that the channel be reopened and sought to keep peace talks on track.

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. At the same time, Israel intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, hitting several commercial and residential areas in Beirut without warning.

At least 182 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.

Parliament speaker accuses US of breaking Iran’s conditions

The Iranian parliament speaker said planned talks with the US to seek a permanent halt to hostilities were “unreasonable” because Washington broke three of Tehran’s 10 conditions for an end to the fighting.

In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf objected to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, an alleged drone incursion into Iranian airspace after the ceasefire went into effect and the US assertion that it will not accept any Iranian enrichment capabilities in a final agreement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal with the US. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon.

“The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,” Araghchi said in a post on X. “The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed 182 people on Wednesday, the highest single-day death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the closing of the strait reported in Iranian state media was “completely unacceptable.” She repeated Trump’s “expectation and demand” that the channel be reopened.

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 US to accept its “proposed conditions and surrender.”

Much about the agreement was unclear as the sides presented vastly different visions of the terms. Iran said the deal would allow it to formalise its new practice of charging ships passing through the strait, a crucial transit lane for oil. 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 was also unclear whether any other country agreed to this condition. The White House said Trump is opposed to tolls for ship passage through the strait.

11 Vessels Moved Through Hormuz On Wednesday

Only 11 vessels moved through the strait on Wednesday, roughly the same as in prior days, according to Windward, a maritime intelligence firm. Iran was requiring shippers to pay tolls of up to $1 a barrel for outbound oil, it said. The largest supertankers carry up to 3 million barrels of crude.

The fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs — the elimination of which were major objectives for the US and Israel in going to war — also remained unclear. Trump said the US would work with Iran to remove buried enriched uranium, though Iran did not confirm that.

White House looks ahead to peace talks Trump initially said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point plan that could help end the war the US and Israel launched on Feb. 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 — Trump called it fraudulent without elaborating.

Vance later said the deal was being misrepresented within Iran, though he did not offer details. Leavitt said Iran’s original, 10-point plan was “fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded.” But a new, 15-point plan Iran presented Tuesday could now “align with our own” proposal for peace, she said.

The White House also said Vance would lead the American negotiating team in talks in Pakistan aimed at finding a permanent end to the war. Pakistan said the talks could begin in Islamabad as soon as Friday.

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. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s personal envoy arrived in Iran for talks on “the way forward.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Israel will continue to “utilize every operational opportunity” to strike Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets within 10 minutes on Wednesday across Lebanon, the largest wave of strikes since March 1.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the Israeli attacks as “barbaric.” Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Israel of “persistently seeking to sabotage” the Iran ceasefire deal.

Hezbollah has not confirmed if it will abide by the ceasefire, though the group has said it was open to giving mediators a chance to secure an agreement. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the group would not stop firing at Israel unless Israel agreed to do the same.

Iran and Oman could collect shipping fees in Strait of Hormuz

Iranian attacks and threats deterred many commercial ships from using the strait, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime. That roiled the world economy and raised the pressure on 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. Such a shift would likely be unacceptable to the Gulf Arab states, which also need to rebuild after repeated Iranian attacks targeting their oil fields.

Airstrikes reported after ceasefire announcement

Shortly after the ceasefire announcement, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates 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. A short time later, the UAE’s air defenses fired at an incoming Iranian missile barrage. Kuwait said three power and water desalination plants were badly damaged after 28 Iranian drones were launched at the country. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted nine drones.

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. In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,700 people have been killed, and 1 million people have been displaced. Twelve Israeli soldiers have died.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 US service members have been killed.

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