Iran War Live Updates: Israel and Iran Step Back From Threats After Day of Tension
President Trump wrote on social media that Israel and Hezbollah had “agreed” not to attack each other. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later distanced himself from talks of a cease-fire in Lebanon. Share full articleVideoU.S. and Iran Trade Strikes as Thousands Flee Southern BeirutThe United States and Iran traded attacks, and Israel warned about attacks against Hezbollah in Beirut, heavily straining the fragile Middle East cease-fire on Monday.CreditCredit...Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra más de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de búsqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google Latest PinnedUpdated June 1, 2026, 11:25 p.m. ETAaron BoxermanChristina GoldbaumJohnatan ReissRichard Pérez-Peña and Farnaz Fassihi Here’s the latest.President Trump said on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to end their attacks on each other, and the Lebanese government said a new cease-fire between the enemies was taking shape. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel later issued a statement that made no mention of a new cease-fire. But he appeared to back off an immediate threat to strike the southern outskirts of Beirut, a stronghold of Iran’s ally, Hezbollah. “I spoke with President Trump tonight, and told him that if Hezbollah doesn’t cease its attacks on our cities and civilians — Israel will strike terror targets in Beirut,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “This position of ours remains.” He added that the Israeli military “will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.” Hezbollah did not comment on Mr. Trump’s statements. Lebanon’s government — which does not include or control Hezbollah — issued a statement saying that it had “received confirmation that Hezbollah had agreed to the U.S. proposal for a mutual cessation of attacks.” And a prominent Lebanese politician, Nabih Berri, who has acted as an intermediary between Hezbollah and the United States, said the group was prepared to accept a cease-fire. Mr. Trump’s post on social media said that he had spoken with Mr. Netanyahu and, indirectly, with Hezbollah. “Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,” Mr. Trump wrote. Diplomats at the United Nations Security Council — with the exception of the United States — had earlier called for Israel to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon and hold off from escalating attacks on the country. The fighting in Lebanon had seemed poised to worsen earlier in the day, with competing threats that seemed to signal that the tenuous negotiations in the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran could collapse. Iran has insisted that any truce apply also to Lebanon. According to two senior Iranian officials, Iran had warned the United States, through intermediaries that it would suspend negotiations to end the war if Israel attacked southern Beirut. The officials asked their names not be used because they were discussing sensitive information. Mr. Netanyahu had said he had ordered Israel’s military to attack Hezbollah in the southern outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, an area known as Dahiya. The Israeli military told residents of Dahiya to evacuate the area, prompting thousands to flee. But several hours later, there was no sign of an attack there. Iran’s military then threatened that if Israel carried out attacks in Dahiya, Israel itself would come under attack, and advised residents of northern Israel to evacuate. The military’s statement, reported by the official state broadcaster IRIB, did not explicitly say who would conduct attacks on Israel. Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel in the early part of the war, but has not done so in almost two months. Trump comments: Mr. Trump said on social media early Monday that criticism from Republicans and Democrats had made negotiations on a deal with Iran more difficult. Farnaz Fassihi has covered the United Nations for 10 years through four different American administrations. U.N. Security Council members call for Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon.ImageFleeing the southern suburbs of Beirut, a family sheltered on the roadside Monday amid growing traffic, after Israel warned the area would be targeted.Credit...Daniel Berehulak/The New York TimesAt a United Nations emergency Security Council meeting on Monday, diplomats were nearly unanimous — with the exception of the United States — in calling for Israel to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon and refrain from threatened escalatory attacks on the country. The meeting, requested by France, took place on a day of turmoil in Lebanon, with tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes, shelters overfilling and a sense of panic because Israel had threatened to imminently attack the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. A day earlier, Israel had moved deeper into Lebanon’s southern territory, inciting alarm and fear of an expanding military occupation. The tensions culminated with President Trump intervening and saying he had gotten Israel to back off from striking Lebanon and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant and political group, not to attack Israel. Hezbollah attacked Israel in early March in defense of Iran not long after the war started. Israel has been attacking Lebanon in an effort to destroy Hezbollah. The Lebanese government has been engaging in direct negotiations with Israel to end hostilities but it has no power over Hezbollah. The fate of a peace deal between Iran and the United States was also at stake, as Iran signaled that it would suspend negotiations if Israel carried through with attacks Beirut. On Sunday, Israel’s forces moved deeper into southern Lebanon, capturing Beaufort, a Crusader castle that served as the Israeli Army’s headquarters during the long occupation of Lebanon from 1982 to 2000. Flying the Jewish state’s blue-and-white flag on the castle incited fury in Lebanon and beyond. “Israel’s presence north of the Blue Line is a clear violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, a senior U.N. official addressing the Council, referring to the demarcation line dividing Israel from Lebanon and the Golan Heights. “These hostilities are reverberating across the region.” Iran has said that among its conditions for a peace agreement with the United States is an end to hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon. Iran’s Armed Forces issued an evacuation warning for northern Israel, saying residents should leave if Israel attacked Beirut. At the Council meeting, some of the sharpest criticism of Israel’s actions came from France, Britain, Russia and China, all permanent members of the Council. The United States, which started the Iran war with Israel in February and is the fifth permanent member of the Council, focused its comments on blaming Iran and Hezbollah. France’s ambassador to the U.N., Jérôme Bonnafont, told the Council that Israel was committing “a major strategic mistake” in Lebanon, and while it had a right to defend itself against Hezbollah attacks, “nothing can justify the continuation and scale of its military operations in Lebanon.” Britain’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, condemned Israel’s actions. “This reckless and disproportionate escalation of Israeli military action exacerbates an already devastating environment for Lebanese civilians and places the government of Lebanon under further strain,” Mr. Kariuki said. Israel’s ambassador, Danny Danon, said Israel did not want escalation and it did not seek Lebanese territory. He said that “the problem is Hezbollah” and its decision to fire on Israel in early March in defense of Iran. Mr. Danon said Hezbollah’s attacks on communities in northern Israel had intensified in recent weeks and that its attacks reached further into Israel’s territory this past weekend. Diplomats representing other countries at the Council — Bahrain, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Denmark, Liberia and Colombia, which holds the rotating presidency in June — called for immediate de-escalation by Israel and expressed concern that more airstrikes, displacement of civilians and destruction would undermine any chances of a lasting peace. Lebanon’s ambassador, Ahmad Arafa, asked the Council to condemn Israel’s actions with a united voice and criticized the Council for failing to stop repeated aggressions against his country, allowing impunity for Israel that has “emboldened the perpetrator to commit the very same crimes time and time again.” Trump finds the high-wire negotiations with Iran ‘very boring.’ImagePresident Trump at the White House in Washington in May.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesFor three months, President Trump has been deeply engaged in the Iran conflict, planning the 38 days of attack, struggling to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and proclaiming “a whole civilization will die tonight,” then backing away to declare a cease-fire and a naval blockage of Iranian ports. But on Monday, after days of haggling with Iranian officials through intermediaries on a preliminary agreement, Mr. Trump declared it was starting “to get very boring.” “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly,” he told Eamon Javers of CNBC when asked about reports that the Iranians, angry at continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon and low-level conflict with the United States in the Persian Gulf, were threatening to stop negotiating. “I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less. If they’re over, they’re over.” There are reasons to doubt that Mr. Trump is truly so unconcerned: Gasoline prices have soared since the war began, with a senior Exxon-Mobil official predicting recently that prices could go far higher, and Republicans are taking note of how deeply unpopular the war with Iran is with their constituents. In recent weeks he has professed indifference about a range of issues that carry deep political consequences for him, including the midterm elections and the financial situation that Americans are facing. But even for Mr. Trump, who has veered from threatening the Iranians with annihilation to declaring that they had already agreed to American terms to fuming that they have not, it seemed strange that he thought the whole conflict was becoming a bore. After all, just hours before he had written in a social media post that negotiations were “continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” There were widespread reports that on Friday he toughened the requirements on a preliminary accord with Iran — one that would just set up another, deeper negotiation — because he was concerned about provisions for returning frozen funds to the Iranian government and over who would handle the recovery of Iran’s highly-enriched uranium. Back in March, Mr. Trump confidently predicted the conflict would be over in a few weeks, saying it was not possible to suffer from boredom while facing off against a longtime American adversary: “Somebody said today, they said, ‘oh, well, the president wants to do it really quickly. After that, he’ll get bored.’” Oil prices eased from their highs for the day but still settled on Wednesday with their biggest moves higher in roughly a month. Brent Crude, the international oil benchmark, rose over 4 percent to $94.98 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate, the domestic benchmark, rose over 5 percent to $92.16.
Original Source: NYTimes
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