The fate of a two-week ceasefire tied to the Iran conflict appeared increasingly uncertain on Thursday, as Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States gave sharply different accounts of what had been agreed.
At the same time, Israel intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon, while Iran halted the passage of oil tankers after what it described as an Israeli breach of the ceasefire.
The disagreement has left the basic terms of the arrangement unclear. Iran and mediator Pakistan have said the ceasefire includes Lebanon, but Israel and the US dispute that account.
In a sharply worded statement, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, accused Israel and the US of violating several clauses of the provisional ceasefire. He also condemned Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and objected to a US demand that Iran should have no right to enrich its own uranium.
Conflicting claims over the ceasefire
The ceasefire, which was meant to last two weeks, now appears to be under severe strain. The opposing versions of the agreement have added to the uncertainty around whether the truce can hold and what obligations each side accepted.
Iran’s decision to block oil tankers further escalated the situation. Tehran said the move followed an Israeli violation of the ceasefire, though the precise details of that alleged breach were not made clear in the source material.
Israel’s continued assaults on Lebanon have also raised the stakes. The escalation suggests that even as diplomatic efforts were underway, military action remained active on the ground.
Iran’s response
Ghalibaf’s statement made clear that Tehran views the ceasefire as having already been broken. His remarks focused on two issues: the bombing of Lebanon and the question of uranium enrichment, which remains a central point of tension between Iran and the US.
The dispute over enrichment is especially significant because it touches on long-running negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme. The source says the US has demanded that Iran should have no right to enrich its own uranium, a position Iran is rejecting.
The contradiction between the parties’ accounts leaves the ceasefire in a precarious position. With no shared interpretation of its terms, the risk of further escalation remains high.
This is a developing story.
Elsewhere in the briefing, the source also noted a separate item involving videos in which the organization’s founder, Yisrael Yaacob Ben Avraham, described Mamdani as a “Muslim terrorist” and a “cancer,” and called his election a “harbinger” of “a creeping Islamic takeover of America.”
For now, however, the broader focus remains on the fragile ceasefire, the widening fighting in Lebanon and the growing friction between Iran, Israel and the United States over what has actually been agreed.
