A ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran appeared on the verge of collapse last night after Donald Trump accused Tehran of breaching their agreement as missiles continued to rain down across the Middle East.
Just over two days since the US president announced a ceasefire in the six-week-old conflict and it already seemed to be unravelling out of his control.
On Thursday, there was still no sign Iran was lifting its near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, having cited Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon as a key sticking point to maintain its grip over the vital shipping route.
Only a handful of vessels have passed through the Strait since the ceasefire was announced on Tuesday night, with the Islamic Republic reportedly demanding that shipping companies pay enormous tolls for safe passage.
Trump accused Iran of ‘doing a very poor job’ of allowing ships to pass through the Strait, further casting doubt on the effectiveness of the deal.
‘Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,’ he wrote on his social media site on Thursday, adding: ‘That is not the agreement we have!’
The post came after Iran’s Supreme Leader released a statement demanding ‘blood money’ from the US and Israel after denouncing them as ‘criminal aggressors’.
‘We will undoubtedly demand compensation for every single damage inflicted, the blood money of the martyrs, and the diyah of the war-wounded,’ Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a message broadcast on Iranian state TV.
Donald Trump last night accused Iran of ‘doing a very poor job’ of allowing ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz despite their ceasefire agreement
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei also released a statement on Thursday demanding ‘blood money’ from the US and Israel, denouncing them as ‘criminal aggressors’
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Choukine, on Thursday
The Strait of Hormuz handles around 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas but has effectively been shut down by Iran in retaliation over the joint US-Israeli attacks launched on February 28
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to back down on its war against Hezbollah as he vowed to continue striking targets ‘with force’.
The IDF has continued to launch attacks on sites affiliated with the terror group, which have also killed and injured civilians, with further strikes taking place in the capital city of Beirut last night.
A State Department official announced that Israel and Lebanon will hold talks next week in Washington as concerns grew over the how long the ceasefire would hold.
The talks in Washington are expected to be handle by the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, and by the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, according to the person familiar with the planning.
It was not immediately clear who would represent Lebanon. The timing and location of the talks was first reported by Axios.
Netanyahu had earlier on Thursday ordered his ministers to seek direct talks with Lebanon, pushing for Iran-backed Hezbollah’s disarmament.
But even as Netanyahu spoke, Israel’s military issued a new evacuation order for Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Later Thursday, Israel’s army said it was striking Hezbollah launch sites in Lebanon. It also warned Israeli citizens that the militant group may expand fire ‘in the coming hours’.
‘We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with force, precision and determination,’ Netanyahu said, in a social media post.
‘Our message is clear: anyone who acts against Israeli civilians, we will strike them. We will continue to hit Hezbollah wherever necessary.’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) has refused to back down on its war against Hezbollah as he vowed to continue striking targets ‘with force’
First responders look for survivors at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Choukine on Thursday night
First responders search under the rubble at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Habbouch on Thursday night
Iran has said Israel’s ongoing attacks on Hezbollah violate the ceasefire agreement, while Netanyahu and Trump have said they do not.
Although Trump has already asked Netanyahu to dial back the strikes in Lebanon after more than 300 people were killed by Israeli strikes on central Beirut on Wednesday, according to its Health Ministry.
Israel has claimed the strikes targeted Hezbollah, which joined the war in support of Tehran.
Hezbollah has since launched retaliatory attacks on Israel after the terror group launched several missiles at Israel in the early hours of Friday.
Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli military infrastructure in the northern city of Haifa in the late hours of Thursday.
The Israeli military said it had struck about 10 Hezbollah launchers that fired rockets toward northern Israel in the evening.
In another escalation for the region, Iran was also accused of launching a drone attack that targeted Kuwait’s National Guard, ‘causing significant damage, without wounding anyone’.
Iran has not claimed responsibility for the strike, which marks the first attack reported in the Gulf on Thursday.
The Kuwait army had earlier said that its air defences were ‘currently facing hostile drone attacks that have penetrated the country’s airspace, targeting several vital installations’.
Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement the ‘heinous attacks launched by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies’ were a ‘flagrent violation’ of the country’s airspace and a ‘blatant breach of international law’.
They also ‘undermine’ the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran and ‘constitutes a blatant challenge to the international community’.
Elsewhere, Trump expressed concern over reports that Iran’s military was charging tolls on tankers seeking to pass through the strait.
‘They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!’ he wrote on social media.
Only a trickle of ships have transited since the war began after several were attacked, and Iran threatened to hit any that it deemed connected to the US or Israel.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told the BBC that his country will allow ships to pass through the strait in accordance with ‘international norms and international law’ once the US ends its ‘aggression’ in the Middle East and Israel stops attacking Lebanon.
The head of the United Arab Emirates’ major oil company, Sultan al-Jaber, said some 230 ships loaded with oil were waiting to get through the strait and must be allowed ‘to navigate this corridor without condition.’
The strait’s de facto closure has caused oil prices to skyrocket – affecting the cost of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East.