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.

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.

 

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.