JD Vance stands firm and insists Lebanon ceasefire was never promised

President Donald Trump will discuss the US’ withdrawal from NATO in a meeting with the alliance’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said today.

It comes as the US President said that NATO was ‘tested and they failed’ during the Iran war, Leavitt said, sharing a direct quote from Trump.

Continuing his post on X, Macron added that any agreement between the US, Israel and Iran would have to address ‘the concerns raised by Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs’ and its control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Any agreement will have to address the concerns raised by Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as its regional policy and its actions obstructing navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

This is how a strong and lasting peace can be built, with the support of all those who are able to contribute to it. France will play its full part, in close coordination with its partners in the Middle East.

This is also what I discussed today in my exchanges with the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Iraq.

French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron has posted on social expressing his support for the US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran, but highlighted the need to include Lebanon in such a deal.

In a post on X he wrote:

I spoke today with Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, as well as with U.S. President Donald Trump.

I told both of them that their decision to accept a ceasefire was the best possible one.

I expressed my hope that the ceasefire will be fully respected by each of the belligerents, across all areas of confrontation, including in Lebanon. This is a necessary condition for the ceasefire to be credible and lasting.

It must open the way to comprehensive negotiations capable of ensuring security for all in the Middle East.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes have today killed 182 people and wounded 890, but warned the number could still rise.

Israel announced earlier today it was carrying out its biggest wave of strikes on the country, hours after finalising a ceasefire agreement with the US and Iran.

Elsewhere, Lebanon’s health ministry reported that 1,739 people have been killed and 5,873 wounded in Lebanon since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2.

The Israeli military has struck the last direct crossing carrying most of the traffic to the key coastal city of Tyre over Lebanon’s Litani River, the strategic demarcation line separating southern Lebanon from the rest of the country.

The attack late Wednesday on the Qasmieh bridge further isolates southern Lebanon as the Israeli army pushes ahead with its ground invasion and bombardment following the announcement of a ceasefire in the Iran war.

Israel has bombed several bridges over the Litani, accusing Hezbollah of using them to bring fighters and military equipment to the border area. But the crossings are also crucial for Lebanese civilians and for those carrying humanitarian aid.

The strike comes as Israel seeks to create a ‘buffer zone’ that it says is necessary to protect its northern towns from Hezbollah rockets. Lebanese civilians fear long-term occupation and displacement.

Bahrain said on Wednesday it had reopened its airspace, which had been closed since the start of the Middle East war, after Iran and the US agreed a two-week ceasefire.

Iraq had earlier announced it was reopening its airspace.

Civil aviation authorities have ‘announced the reopening of airspace over the Kingdom of Bahrain’, the Bahrain News Agency reported.

It added that the operator of Bahrain International Airport, near the capital Manama, ‘confirms the gradual resumption of flights’ and is working ‘to ensure the efficient and smooth return of operational activities, while safeguarding the safety and security of travellers’.

Gulf nations have borne the brunt of Iran’s retaliatory attacks since the United States and Israel launched strikes in late February that ignited a regional war.

The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday in an 11th-hour bid to avert all-out destruction threatened by US President Donald Trump.

US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday urged Iran not to let the fragile ceasefire deal fall apart over Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, days before he is due to lead talks with Tehran in Pakistan.

‘If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart… over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them, and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,’ Vance told reporters in Hungary.

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday said Tehran’s negotiators thought the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreed to on Tuesday included Lebanon, but the US had in fact not agreed to that.

The US must choose between a ceasefire or a continued war ‘via Israel’, Iran’s foreign minister has said as Israel pounded Lebanon with deadly strikes on Wednesday.

In an X post, Abbas Araghchi said the terms outlined in the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran are ‘clear and explicit.’

‘The US.must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,’ he said, adding that ‘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.

The scale of the killing in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday is ‘horrific’, the UN rights chief said, urging the international community to help end the unfolding ‘nightmare’.

‘The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific,’ Volker Turk 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.’

Pictured: A view of the destruction after the Israeli military carried out three airstrikes on Beirut, Lebanon on April 08, 2026.