Former President Donald Trump has urged Israel to moderate its military actions against Lebanon, as ongoing strikes are jeopardizing delicate peace negotiations with Iran. Trump is keeping a vigilant eye on developments in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement on Thursday, Trump revealed that he advised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt a more restrained approach. This conversation comes as Vice President JD Vance and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff head to Islamabad for pivotal talks this weekend.

There is growing concern among U.S. officials that Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon could disrupt the fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, which has been in place for just three days. This could potentially derail the negotiations before they gain traction.

Netanyahu announced on Thursday that he is ready to initiate direct talks with Lebanon as soon as possible. The discussions aim to disarm Hezbollah militants backed by Iran and potentially establish diplomatic ties between the two nations.

A U.S. official has confirmed that negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are scheduled to begin next week at the State Department in Washington, focusing on resolving the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah.

US pushes Israel to dial down Hezbollah strikes amid talks

While further details about the talks remain sparse, a source familiar with the arrangements indicated that the U.S. delegation will be led by Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa. Israel will be represented by its Ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter.

Lebanese officials are seeking an immediate ceasefire ahead of those talks, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

Netanyahu has steadfastly claimed that Israel’s battle against Hezbollah does not factor into the US’ peace talks with Tehran. 

‘There is no ceasefire in Lebanon. We continue to strike Hezbollah with full force,’ Netanyahu said. 

However, the Israeli prime minister held a phone call between Trump and Witkoff on Wednesday, according to Axios. 

Witkoff reportedly told Netanyahu to ‘calm down’ the strikes in Lebanon and open peace negotiations. 

‘I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,’ Trump told NBC News on Thursday.

Trump warns Iran over Strait tolls amid ceasefire tensions

Trump, however, is currently concerned that the fighting could affect his attempts to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

The President made multiple Truth Social posts Thursday angry with the notion that Iran would start charging a toll on anyone trying to get through the Strait of Hormuz.

‘There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait — They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!’

He then added: ‘Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the agreement we have!’ 

The White House supports reopening the strait as part of the ceasefire deal but says Trump opposes Iran’s military, which continues to control the waterway, from seeking to raise revenue by charging tolls on passing ships. 

US officials told WSJ that Trump is worried the Israel-Lebanon battle could allow Iran more leverage during talks. 

The launch of direct peace talks between the neighboring nations is a significant achievement, though reaching an agreement will be difficult after decades of hostilities, Hezbollah’s continued presence and longstanding disagreements over the countries’ shared land border.

Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 300 people were killed and more than 1,100 wounded Wednesday by Israeli strikes on central Beirut and other areas of Lebanon that Israel said targeted Hezbollah, which joined the war in support of Tehran.

Early Friday morning, Israel’s military said it struck approximately 10 launchers in Lebanon that had fired rockets toward northern Israel on Thursday.

Israel also said Thursday it killed Ali Yusuf Harshi, an aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem. There was no Hezbollah comment.

After declaring victory with the ceasefire announcement, both Iran and the U.S. have appeared to apply pressure on each other. 

Semiofficial news agencies in Iran suggested forces have mined the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil that Tehran has closed. Trump warned that US forces would hit Iran harder than before if it did not fulfill the agreement.

Underlining Iran’s continued control of the strait, a Botswana-flagged liquified natural gas tanker attempted to travel out of the Persian Gulf via a route ordered by the Revolutionary Guard, but suddenly turned around and headed back early Friday, ship-tracking data showed.

High-stakes Iran talks begin as key questions remain unanswered

Questions also remained over what will happen to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium at the heart of tensions, how and when normal traffic will resume through the strait, and what happens to Iran’s ability to launch future missile attacks and support armed proxies in the region. 

Vance, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, sets off Friday to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. 

The vice president is joined by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who took part in three rounds of indirect talks with Iranian negotiators aimed at settling US concerns about Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic weapons programs and its support for armed proxy groups in the Middle East before Trump and Israel launched the February 28 war against Iran.

The White House has provided scant detail about the format of the talks — whether they will be direct or indirect — and has not provided specific expectations for the meeting.

But the arrival of Vance for negotiations marks a rare moment of high-level US government engagement with the Iranian government. 

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the most direct contact had been when President Barack Obama in September 2013 called newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. 

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Vance, Witkoff, Kushner and Secretary of State Marco Rubio ‘have always been collaborating on these discussions’ and said Trump was optimistic that a lasting deal can be reached during the two-week ceasefire. 

‘President Trump has a proven track record of achieving good deals on behalf of the United States and the American people, and he will only accept one that puts America first,’ Kelly said.

It’s the highest-stakes moment thus far for Vance, who spent much of last year as more of a background player in the Trump White House, especially as others like Elon Musk and Rubio took turns as ever-present advisers for the president.

But Vance’s portfolio is fattening fast, first with a mission to root out fraud in government programs at home and now to help solve a US war in the Middle East, where complicated doesn’t even begin to describe things.

Vance, who served in the Iraq War while in the Marines, spent two years as a US senator and a little more than one as vice president, has little diplomatic experience.

On Wednesday, he dismissed speculation that the Iranians requested that he join the talks, telling reporters: ‘I don’t know that. I would be surprised if that was true. But, you know, I wanted to be involved because I thought I could make a difference.’ 

The White House has not detailed who will be in the negotiations besides Vance, Witkoff and Kushner, but Kelly said officials from the National Security Council, State Department and Pentagon ‘will also play a supportive role.’ 

During early rounds of indirect nuclear talks with the Iranians before the war, Democrats and some nuclear experts questioned whether Kushner and Witkoff had enough technical knowledge. 

The White House has not said whether the pair, whom Trump has entrusted with some of his most difficult negotiations since returning to office, had a nuclear expert with them for those talks.

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