President Donald Trump said Israel’s attack on Beirut should not have happened and called on all sides to stand down as the United States and Iran “are so close to a Peace Deal.”
Israeli security officials told the country’s Channel 12 on Sunday that they were prepared for any Iranian response after Israel’s latest strike on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Israel’s attack on Dahieh in Beirut showed Washington either lacked the will or the ability to carry out its commitments, warning that the path forward was impossible if the United States failed to do so.
The deputy inspector of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said on Sunday that Israel’s latest attack on Hezbollah in Beirut would not go unanswered.
The Israeli military said on Sunday it had carried out a precise strike on a Hezbollah infrastructure site in Dahieh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Iran is still reviewing the memorandum of understanding with the US, IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported, citing an informed source close to the negotiating team.
Qatari negotiators flew to Tehran on Sunday morning as part of efforts to finalize an agreement to end the US-Iran war, Reuters reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation.
A limited cyberattack on shared communications infrastructure caused disruptions at four Iranian banks, the country's coordination council of banks said on Sunday.
A group of hardliners held protest rallies against an emerging deal with the United States in Tehran and Mashhad, accusing Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi of being an infiltrator and compromising with the US.
President Trump said a deal with Iran is scheduled to be signed Sunday and would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while warning that he has an “ultimate alternative” if the process fails. He also ruled out any cash exchange in the deal, vowing to retrieve Iran's uranium stocks at a later time.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Saturday that Islamabad will host the signing ceremony for an Iran-US peace agreement by video conference on Sunday. Iran's foreign ministry earlier said the signing will not happen on Sunday.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Israel’s strike on Beirut was not expected to disrupt plans for a preliminary memorandum with Iran to be signed.
“From all I know, we are on track. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” Hegseth said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“We’re attuned to what’s happening with Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel, which they need to stop doing, and Iran needs to encourage them to stop doing that in very adamant ways,” he said.
Hegseth said Israel was “very measured in its response,” adding that it understood “we’re on the verge of a deal.”
“I don’t expect that to disrupt,” he said. “If Iran wants this to hold, they need to pull back Hezbollah, no doubt.”
Hegseth said any arrangement with Iran would require its nuclear material to be destroyed, removed or downblended, with inspections and oversight.
“Nuclear material will be destroyed and removed. The nuclear program will be dismantled,” he said.
He also said the US military option would remain in place if Iran failed to comply with the terms of a deal.
“We’ll make sure the military option is there,” he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said decisions on war and negotiations with the United States rest with Ians's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the Supreme National Security Council, and that all factions must follow those decisions.
Speaking at a meeting with media officials, Pezeshkian said it was regrettable to use labels such as “treason” and “selling out the country” against Iran’s negotiating team.
He said commentary on state TV about the war and talks with Washington does not necessarily reflect the views of the Supreme National Security Council, the Supreme Defense Council or Mojtaba Khamenei’s guidance.
Mohammad-Hossein Khoshvaght, the brother-in-law of Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s brother, criticized those opposed to Iran signing a memorandum of understanding with the United States to end the war.
“In the SNSC, military and security commanders and representatives of the leadership, alongside the president and the foreign minister, have reviewed the issue of the memorandum of understanding to end the war under the supervision of the leadership, taking into account Iran’s interests and benefits, and have reached a conclusion; what does opposition to it, alongside Netanyahu, by some people mean?!” Khoshvaght wrote on X.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said President Donald Trump still intended for the preliminary framework of a peace deal with Iran to be signed.
“The president has every intent for it to happen. I’ll leave the actual details and timing to the White House,” Waltz said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“The Iranians are incredibly difficult negotiators, coupled with the fact that they’re having a very hard time getting guidance from their supreme leader, and they’re not always on the same page within their team,” he added.
Waltz said Trump and US negotiators were confident the deal would happen.
“They have every intent of getting this done today,” he said.
President Donald Trump said Israel’s attack on Beirut should not have happened and called on all sides to stand down.
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process,” he said.
“We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should stand down,” Trump said.
“There should be no more attacks by Israel anywhere in Lebanon, but there should also be no more attacks by any other party, including Hezbollah, against Israel,” he said.
“This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!” Trump added.
Former US President Barack Obama said a new agreement with Iran was unlikely to improve significantly on the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.
“It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place, which had worked for a long stretch of time before the United States pulled out,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News.
“I’m hopeful that bombing stops and ordinary people are no longer suffering as a consequence of the war,” he added.
Obama said the crisis showed the limits of using force to resolve foreign policy problems.
“The notion that we can just bully our way or bomb our way to solutions may sometimes seem appealing,” Obama said, adding that diplomacy could produce deals “that don’t solve 100% of the problem but solve 80, 90% of the problem” while avoiding war.
Israel took into consideration that its strike on Beirut could lead Iran to retaliate with ballistic missile fire on the same day President Donald Trump said the US and Iran would sign an initial ceasefire agreement, CNN reported, citing an Israeli source.
Iran was conveying its message to the United States through Qatari mediators in Tehran before Israel’s attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported, citing a source close to the negotiations.
The source was quoting as saying that nothing had yet been finalized in the Iran-US talks.
“Even if all of Iran’s views are incorporated (into the US-Iran memorandum of understanding), no agreement will be signed at the time announced by Donald Trump,” the source added.
The Israeli military said it was preparing for the possibility of fire toward Israel in the coming hours following its strike in Beirut.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir was conducting ongoing situation assessments with relevant commanders.
“The IDF continues to maintain readiness and vigilance for a range of scenarios in defense and offense,” the military said in a statement.
“The IDF will not tolerate fire toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the military said.
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