Lebanon not part of ceasefire deal, Iran says it is

Donald Trump has said Lebanon is not part of the two-week ceasefire deal that was agreed overnight.

Israel launched a massive wave of strikes on Lebanon after the deal was announced.

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Welcome to DW's coverage of the conflict in Iran and the Middle East on Wednesday, April 8:
UN human rights chief condemns 'horrific' killing in Lebanon
Volker Türk, the head of the UN's human rights office, has decried the large-scale Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday.

"The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific," Türk said in a statement.

"Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief.

It places enormous pressure on a fragile peace, which is so desperately needed by civilians."
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, at least 254 people were killed on Wednesday alone and 1,165 wounded.

Türk pointed out that before Wednesday more than 1,500 people had been killed in Israeli attacks since March 24, with more than a million people being displaced.

He called on the international community to bring an end to this "nightmare."
Iran parliament speaker says ceasefire, negotiations 'unreasonable' amid violations
Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said a "bilateral ceasefire or negotiations is unreasonable" as he listed three violations to the ceasefire he said were committed on Wednesday.

In a post on X, Qalibaf said Israel's continued attacks on Lebanon came in violation to the first clause of the ceasefire agreement, citing mediator Pakistan's confirmation.

Both Israel and the US have maintained Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire.

The Iranian speaker also listed the end of attacks on Iran and Iran's right to enrichment as two other clauses, saying a drone was destroyed over Iran's city of Lar in Fars province despite the ceasefire.

The Reuters news agency cited unnamed Pakistani sources as saying ​it would ‌be Qalibaf along with Foreign Minister Abbas ​Araghchi ⁠who will head to Islamabad for talks ⁠with ​the United States.

Israel says ceasefire is 'not end of campaign'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel is ready to return to fighting after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran.

"Let me be clear: We still have objectives to complete, and we will achieve them — either through agreement or through renewed fighting," Netanyahu said in a televised statement.

"We are prepared to return to combat at any moment required.

Our finger remains on the trigger.

This is not the end of the campaign, but a step along the way to achieving all our objectives."
He also insisted that the deal had been agreed in "full coordination" with Israel, saying "we were not surprised at the last moment" by the announcement.

NATO 'tested and failed,' White House says
The White House on Wednesday said US President Donald Trump believes the NATO military alliance was "tested and they failed" during the Iran war, ahead of a meeting between the president and the alliance's secretary general.

"It's quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people over the course of the last six weeks when it's the American people who have been funding their defense," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

When asked if Trump would discuss a possible withdrawal from NATO, Leavitt said: "It's something the president has discussed, and I think it's something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with Secretary-General [Mark] Rutte."
"Perhaps you'll hear directly from the president following that meeting," she added.

Trump has been vocal in his condemnation of the military alliance over what he has perceived as its failure to support his war on Iran.

Trump 'disappointed' with NATO over refusal to join Iran war
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The US president has been a skeptic of the 77-year-old alliance since his first term in office.

But his second term has seen, on multiple occasions, some of the biggest tests to NATO's unity to date, most notably when he threatened to take control of the Arctic island of Greenland from fellow-ally Denmark.

US, Israel insist Lebanon not part of ceasefire
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed Trump's stance on the ceasefire, saying that it does not include Lebanon.

President Trump had reportedly told PBS the same thing earlier in the day, contradicting statements from Iran that insist Lebanon is indeed covered by the deal.

Iran has also threatened to end the ceasefire if Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also appeared to be of the opinion that Lebanon was not included in the deal, saying Israeli forces would "continue to strike" Hezbollah.

However, Leavitt said that Trump would discuss adding Lebanon to the ceasefire deal with Netanyahu.

"This will continue to be discussed, I am sure, between the president and Prime Minister Netanyahu, the United States and Israel and all of the parties involved," she told reporters.

On Wednesday, Israel launched its biggest attack on Lebanon since the beginning of the war with Iran, with the Lebanese Health Ministry saying 254 people had been killed in one day alone.

US sees uptick in Strait of Hormuz traffic, White House says
The White House said it noted an uptick in traffic passing through the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.

White ​House ​press ​secretary ‌Karoline ​Leavitt ⁠told ⁠reporters that US President Donald Trump is opposed to tolls for ships passing through the strait.

"The immediate priority of the president ​is the reopening of the strait without ​any ‌limitations, whether in the form of tolls or otherwise," Leavitt said.

News reports on the ceasefire agreement suggested it included a clause that entails that passage through the strait would be in coordination with the Iranian armed forces.

Another clause reportedly said that Iran would be compensated for the damages caused by the war via payments by ships passing through the strategic strait.

Both Iran and the US have publicly disagreed on several details regarding the ceasefire agreement, with the White House earlier saying that the agreement reported by Iranian media was different from the one approved by the US.

Investors again make timely bet ahead of ceasefire announcement — report
Reuters has reported on another instance of unknown investors placing a very timely bet ahead of an announcement by the Trump administration.

According to the news agency, a $950-million bet (around €815 million) was placed on the price of oil falling just hours before the announcement of the ceasefire overnight.

At around 7.45 p.m.

GMT on Tuesday, investors sold 8,600 lots of Brent and US crude futures, according to LSEG data, reported by Reuters.

The two-week ceasefire was announced at 10.30 p.m.

GMT.

When markets opened on Wednesday morning, crude futures fell by around 15% to less than $100 per barrel.

While trading large amounts in oil futures is not uncommon, usually investors spread their bets across multiple exchanges and have them executed at different times.

Tuesday's unusual trades followed a similar incident on March 23 when $500 million in oil futures were sold just 15 minutes before Trump announced he would delay attacks on Iranian infrastructure which also saw the price of crude fall around 15%.

US, Iran talks to begin in Pakistan on Saturday, White House says
Washington and Tehran will begin talks in Pakistan on Saturday, the White House announced, adding that US President Donald Trump was dispatching a negotiating team led by Vice President JD Vance .

White House ‌press secretary Karoline ​Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that Vance played a significant and key role in Iran since the beginning.

Media reports throughout the war had painted Vance as a "skeptical" voice within the Trump administration.

Traffic through Strait of Hormuz comes to halt as Iran threatens to collapse ceasefire
Iran stopped traffic through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, Iranian media reported, as it threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire over Israel's deadly strikes on Lebanon.

Iran's Fars news agency said only two oil tankers passed through the strategic waterway on Wednesday, before traffic was suspended again.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard in a statement carried on state TV issued a "firm warning" to the US and Israel: "If the aggression against beloved Lebanon does not cease immediately, we will fulfil our duty and deliver a response."
Fars also cited an unnamed military representative as threatening Israel with further attacks if it continues its attacks on Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.

The unnamed source added that the situation confirmed Tehran's suspicion that either the US has no influence over Israel or is tacitly tolerating its attacks.

WATCH: Iran-US ceasefire sparks celebrations, war of words
There have been celebrations across Iran over the two-week ceasefire which has seen US President Trump pull back from his threat to destroy Iran's "entire civilization."
Questions over whether the truce will hold remain.

Iran ceasefire sparks celebrations and a war of words
Iran's FM tells US: Ceasefire or Israel
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has added to the questions over the future of the ceasefire deal, announced less than 24 hours ago.

Araghchi said that Lebanon had been a part of the ceasefire deal and that Israel's large-scale attacks on Wednesday amount to a violation of the agreement.

He called on US President Trump to pick either the ceasefire deal, or Israel.

"The Iran–US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose — ceasefire or continued war via Israel.

It cannot have both," the foreign minister wrote on X.

"The world sees the massacres in Lebanon.

The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments," he added.

He also included a screenshot of the ceasefire announcement made by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, highlighting the lines that make clear US allies, i.e.

Israel, and Lebanon are included in the deal.

Egypt accuses Israel of 'premeditated intent' to undermine de-escalation efforts
Egypt , one of the countries that helped mediate a ceasefire between the US and Iran, has accused Israel of harboring a "premeditated intent" to undermine regional and international efforts to reduce escalation.

A Foreign Ministry statement on Wednesday sharply condemned Israel's "blatant" attacks on Lebanon.

"Egypt expresses its full condemnation of this brutal aggression, including the purposeful and systemic targeting of critical civilian infrastructure," the statement read, calling it a violation of international humanitarian law.

It went on to describe Israel's attacks on Lebanon as an "attempt to draw the region into comprehensive chaos."
Lebanon death toll from Wednesday rises to over 100
The death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday has been revised from 79 up to 112, according to the Health Ministry.

"The Israeli enemy's airstrikes on numerous Lebanese areas, reaching the capital Beirut, have led, in an updated non-final toll, to 112 martyrs and 837 wounded,"
Wednesday marked Israel's biggest attack against Lebanon since the beginning of the most recent war, despite a ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran  being announced just hours earlier.

Lebanon's Hezbollah stresses right to respond to Israel's attacks
Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah has stressed it has a "right" to respond to Israel's deadly salvo of attacks across Lebanon on Wednesday, which have thus far killed at least 112 people, according to health authorities.

"We affirm that the blood of the martyrs and the wounded will not be shed in vain, and that today's massacres, like all acts of aggression and savage crimes, confirm our natural and legal right to resist the occupation and respond to its aggression," the Iran-backed movement said in a statement.

The group is designated as a terrorist group in the US, Germany and several other countries, while the EU lists its military wing as a terrorist group.

Erdogan warns of 'possible provocations' and ceasefire 'sabotage'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday warned of the threat of "possible provocations and sabotage" to the ceasefire his country helped mediate between Washington and Tehran.

"We hope that the ceasefire will be fully implemented on the ground without giving any opportunity for possible provocations and sabotage," Erdogan said on X.

He urged in a phone call with US President Donald Trump "a lasting peace agreement with Iran," according to a Turkish presidency statement.

"This two-week window of opportunity, which has opened after 40 days of considerable tension and suffering for the whole world, must be used to reach a lasting peace deal," Erdogan told Trump.

The Turkish president also called for the process to not be "compromised under any circumstances," pledging Ankara's full support to ensure this.