Iran's chief negotiator says there's "no point" in continuing talks with the US after Israel launched a strike on Beirut
It comes after US President Donald Trump said a deal would be signed on Sunday
Iran's foreign ministry says the US bears "direct responsibility" for the "crimes" committed by Israel as it "strongly condemns" the strike
Israel says it struck a command centre run by the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, and adds that Hezbollah attacked Israel "unprovoked" – Lebanese officials say three people have been killed
"Let's not blow it!" Trump writes on social media, saying the attack on Beirut "should not have happened, "particularly on a special day when we are so close to a peace deal with Iran"
Many will say the timing of this attack, which Israel says was in response to Hezbollah's attacks against northern Israel, was no coincidence, writes our Middle East correspondent
Edited by Charlotte Hadfield
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian
Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appeared on state TV two days ago to detail what is included in the possible Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Iran and the US.
Among what he said, there were some key points. Araghchi said the agreement included an end to hostilities “on all fronts, including Lebanon”. He also said that the matter of the Strait of Hormuz was also included.
According to him, Iran and Oman were preparing to announce a new mechanism governing navigation through the strategic waterway.
Araghchi also said that the legal framework and future governance arrangements for the strait would be determined during the 60-day negotiating period.
He also said that some matters like as sanctions relief and Iran’s nuclear programme have been postponed to the next phase of the talks.
There had been speculation on Iranian outlets about the deal and what’s included in it as well, but Araghchi said on X two days ago that “the media should refrain entering speculation about its content”.
US President Donald Trump reposted what Araghchi had said on X on Truth social.
Iran says the United States bears "direct responsibility" for the "crimes" committed by Israel following the earlier Israeli strike on Beirut.
Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says in a statement it "strongly condemns" the strike, which it described as a "blatant violation of Lebanon's national sovereignty".
It adds that the attack is a "gross violation" of the ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US.
The foreign ministry says the US also has direct responsibility for Israel's "ceasefire violations" and "reaffirms its determination to take all necessary measures to exercise its inherent right to legitimate self-defence".
Israel says the strike was targeting a Hezbollah command centre in the Lebanese capital.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has "strongly condemned" Israel's earlier strike on Beirut, which came amid negotiations between the US and Iran.
"The strikes took place despite the ceasefire & at a time when the US & Iran are expected to reach an agreement that will pave the way to a peaceful resolution of this conflict," Guterres writes on X.
He says the war has had a "devastating impact on the world's economy", and he urges all parties to show "maximum restraint at this crucial moment".
BBC correspondent Hugo Bachega has visited the site of an Israeli strike on Beirut that occurred earlier on Sunday, in which three people were killed and 15 injured, according to Lebanon's state media.
The attack on Dahieh, where the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah is based, came after the US said an agreement with Iran would be signed on Sunday.
The Israeli military said the attack was in response to Hezbollah firing towards northern Israel. US President Trump said the strike "should not have happened".
This video can not be playedGhoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian
The secretary of Iran’s top security body has said in response to Israel's attack on southern Beirut that “the response of the warriors of Islam is upcoming”.
In a statement published by Iranian outlets, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), has called Lebanon Iran’s “lifeblood” and said “violating the red lines of the Islamic Republic will not be tolerated”.
Iran has repeatedly maintained that any deal with the US must include an end of the war in Lebanon as well.
Iran and Israel's strikes against each other on 7-8 June, in the largest escalation since the ceasefire, came into force on 8 April.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) initially launched attacks in response to Israeli strikes on Lebanon. Israel retaliated by attacking Iran.
Jack Grey
Live reporter
Lebanon says three were killed and 15 injured in an Israeli strike on its capital Beirut
Prior to Israel's strike on Beirut earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported four impacts of "suspicious aerial targets" throughout Sunday.
It said three impacts hit Israeli territory, near the border with Lebanon, while another hit an "area in which IDF soldiers are operating" in southern Lebanon – after each it said no injuries had been reported.
At 11:35 BST (13:35 Israeli time) the IDF announced it had struck a Hezbollah command centre in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut.
It said this strike was in response to "Hezbollah’s launch of aerial targets toward Israeli territory earlier today (Sunday)", adding that the site was used by Hezbollah to advance attacks against Israel.
Following the strike, US President Trump said it "should not have happened", describing the attacks Israel was responding to as "very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed".
Lebanon's state media have said at least three people were killed and 15 injured in the Israeli air strike on Beirut.Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian has defended the negotiations between Tehran and Washington in his latest remarks published by Iranian outlets.
“Defending national interests and maintaining the county’s authority within the framework on negotiations is not an approach limited to the government, but rather all elements of the establishment have a common vision and goal about this,” Pezeshkian has said.
When it comes to negotiations, he says the approval of a powerful body in Iran, the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), is the “criterion” and adds that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has the last word when it comes to negotiations.
Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in verified recent photographs or videos since succeeding his father in early March. So far, Iranian outlets have released several written messages attributed to him.
With uncertainty surrounding when exactly we can expect a deal between the US and Iran to be signed, here's a reminder of what has been said in recent days:
US President Donald Trump believes a deal will still be signed with Iran "in the next two to three hours", he tells Fox News.
He made the comments in a brief interview with the network's Trey Yingst, who repeated them on air during a live cross from Tel Aviv.
Trump told Yingst he spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after today's strikes on Beirut. Trump appeared to express his frustration, using an expletive to ask Netanyahu what he is doing.
"He told the prime minister not to conduct additional strikes against Hezbollah, so it doesn't affect this deal from moving forward," Yingst said.
Joe Inwood
World news correspondent
He might not say it explicitly, but President Trump is clearly furious with Benjamin Netanyahu.
His social media post says that the attack on Beirut, which he implies was a disproportionate response to a “very small and meaningless” attack by Hezbollah, risked disrupting the peace process “on a special day”.
It isn’t specified what makes the day “special", but it has not gone unnoticed that there was a chance of a peace deal being signed on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
That prospect now looks far less likely.
What will make this doubly galling for the President is that he has repeatedly pointed out the extent to which he is in the driving seat of his relationship with Israel’s Prime Minister.
"If I tell Netanyahu to do something, he does it,” he told the BBC last week.
The fact that his ally decided to launch strikes, knowing the impact they would have, on a day when the President had predicted a deal, will further sour an already strained relationship.
Sebastian Usher
Global affairs correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem
There's no doubt that President Trump would very much like to be able to announce the deal on his eightieth birthday – and frame it as a victory.
The Iranian leadership may not want to give him that satisfaction.
But it certainly does look as if the two sides have all but agreed a deal.
The details are not yet known – and both the US and Iran have each been presenting the aspects that make them seem to have the upper hand.
A senior Iranian official has said that this initial deal would see the Strait of Hormuz re-opened immediately, as Trump has stipulated.
The same official has also said there's an agreement for Tehran to dilute its highly enriched uranium inside Iran.
These would be significant moves forward, raising hopes of success in the difficult negotiations to come.
But the issue of Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon could still prove to be a deal breaker further down the line.
These are some of the latest images reaching us from Beirut following an Israeli strike on the Dahieh suburb of the Lebanese capital earlier on Sunday.
Three people were killed and 15 injured in the strike, according to Lebanon's civil defence agency.
Photos show Lebanese army officers at the site, while people can be seen clearing through the rubble.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says "we are on track" to sign a deal with Iran, and it's "not a matter of if" but when.
In an interview with the BBC's US partner CBS, Hegseth says: "We're attuned to what's happening with Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel, which they need to stop doing," adding that "Iran needs to encourage them to stop doing that in very adamant ways".
"If Iran wants this to hold", Hegseth warns, "they need to pull back Hezbollah, no doubt".
Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent in Beirut
Lebanon had already become a major obstacle for a deal between the US and Iran, and the Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah is based, can further complicate those efforts.
Iran insists that any truce should also include the end of the war here, something that has been rejected by Israel, which appears to have been sidelined in the negotiations.
Israeli officials say the conflict against Hezbollah is separate to the one in Iran and, in Israel, there is public support for the war in Lebanon to continue.
If Iran is successful in linking the two arenas, Israel may be forced to stop its military activities in Lebanon.
Many will say the timing of this attack, which Israel says was in response to Hezbollah’s attacks against northern Israel, was no coincidence, amid the expectation of the possible signing of the deal.
The full text has not been released – in fact, we still do not know if it all its terms have been agreed by both sides – but there seems to be a consensus in Israel that this is a setback for the country: the military successes do not appear to have been translated into something that can be seen as a strategic victory.
Based on leaks of the deal, an Israeli military official described it as “very bad” and “catastrophic” to the country’s Ma’ariv newspaper.
A defence official told N12 “none of the goals set by Israel have received an immediate response in the agreement.”
Finally, Iran had vowed to respond to any strike on Beirut by attacking Israel. A deal that was described as being close is once again at risk of derailing.
Israel's foreign ministry says that "Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, is the one that attacked Israel again this morning, completely unprovoked".
"Hezbollah constantly fires at Israeli civilians", the foreign ministry says in a statement on X, adding that such attacks have continued "even after the ceasefire".
"It was Hezbollah that launched an unprovoked attack on Israel in March, acting under the orders of its Iranian masters," it adds.
The statement comes in response to comments that were made earlier on Sunday by Iran's chief negotiator, who said Israel's fresh strikes on Beirut show the US is not fulfilling its commitments.
Three people were killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday, according to Lebanon's civil defence agency.
The civil defence agency said in a statement carried by Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA), that "the bodies of three martyrs were recovered from under the rubble".
NNA reports that the number of those injured in the strike has reached 15, while significant damage was caused to buildings and shops.
US President Donald Trump says Israel's strike on Beirut earlier on Sunday "should not have happened".
"Particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran," he writes on Truth Social.
He says Israel has a "right to defend itself" but the attack it was responding to was "very small and meaningless".
He adds that the US and Iran are "very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should stand down".
Trump says there should be no more attacks by Israel or "any other party", adding that this could be the "beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!".Sebastian Usher
Global affairs correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem
Lebanese security forces at the site of an Israeli airstrike on 14 June
Iran's chief negotiator has said that Israel's attacks on Beirut in Lebanon show the US is not fulfilling its commitments.
Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf made his comments after Israeli forces struck Hezbollah targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in response to rocket fire by Hezbollah into northern Israel.
It comes as the US was indicating that an initial deal with Iran to end their war could be signed today.
Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon almost reignited the Iran war last week after Tehran fired missiles into Israel in response to the Israeli military hitting Beirut.
President Trump quickly intervened to demand that both sides hold their fire, which they did.
He may have to do the same again now. The situation in Lebanon will be one of the toughest issues to be negotiated if and when the US and Iran sign an initial agreement.
In the past two days, both sides have shown a commitment to finalising that deal imminently. The latest flare up puts that in doubt but by no means rules it out.
Images show damage to buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut following an Israeli strike on Sunday
Israel has carried out a fresh strike in Beirut's southern suburbs amid reports of an imminent deal between Iran and the US.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it struck a Hezbollah command centre in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut following "Hezbollah’s launch of aerial targets toward Israeli territory" earlier on Sunday.
Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that the latest strike shows the US is not fulfilling its commitments and either lacks the will or ability to do so.
Iran has long insisted Lebanon be covered by the peace deal being negotiated with Washington. Ghalibaf said there was "no point" in talking about continuing "down this path".
The strike on Lebanon's capital comes after US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that a deal to end the war with Iran would be signed on Sunday.
Writing on Truth Social, he said the deal would see the Strait of Hormuz immediately opened "to all" and would guarantee Iran is never able to build a nuclear weapon.
However, Iran's foreign ministry has expressed caution over the timeline for signing the deal, warning that we will "have to wait and see about the exact date".
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