Middle East crisis live: Trump says Israel won’t send troops to Beirut after Netanyahu call; US not aware of Iran suspending talks

Earlier, a cargo vessel experienced a “large explosion” after being hit by a projectile in the Persian Gulf, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

UKMTO said the incident happened at around 2pm UK time, around 40 nautical miles southeast of the port city of Umm Qasr in southern Iraq.

The vessel was hit by an “unknown projectile” on its starboard side, causing a “large explosion”, it said. Authorities are investigating the incident.

Earlier, Israel’s defence ministry claimed that France ​has ‌banned Israeli ​government representatives from attending the ​Eurosatory ⁠defence exhibition in ⁠Paris this ‌month.

France also reportedly banned Israeli weapons makers from exhibiting any systems other than air defence products, “with offensive systems explicitly excluded”.

“This is a disgraceful decision, one that reeks of political and commercial calculation, and regrettably, it comes as no surprise,” Israel’s defence ministry said in a statement.

On Sunday, French president Emmanuel Macron requested an emergency UN security council meeting amid Israel’s advance further into southern Lebanon.

“Nothing can justify the continuation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and an ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory,” foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the French broadcaster BFMTV.

In a second Truth Social post, the US president claimed that “talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

This is despite earlier reports that Tehran had suspended message exchanges with Washington over Israel’s continued attacks in Lebanon.

As Israel threatens to bomb Beirut (or perhaps not – see my last post) and the US and Iran trade missile strikes, Donald Trump has insisted it will “all work out well in the end” and urged his critics to “sit back and relax”.

So are we any closer to a deal? In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour.

Further to that, Donald Trump has said that Israel will not send troops to Beirut following a call with Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

He added that he also had a “very good call” with Hezbollah through representatives and that “they agreed that all shooting will stop”.

“Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,” he said.

I’ll bring you any comment from Israel and Hezbollah as I get it.

More from Donald Trump now, who has told CNBC that he “couldn’t care less” if negotiations with Iran are over.

Shrugging off the possible collapse of peace negotiations, the US president said: “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.”

“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” Trump went on, adding that he thought the protracted talks “started to get very boring”.

“If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring,” he said.

As we’ve been reporting, this comes after Iran halted message exchanges with the US amid Israel’s ongoing assault on Lebanon.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier on Monday that the ceasefire between Iran and the US “is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts.”

Reuters reported that Trump later held a phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (I’ll bring you more on that as I get it).

Trump also told CNBC – as he has said many times before – that he is not worried about oil prices, which spiked following Iran’s announcement earlier on Monday.

“I think the oil will be dropping like a rock in the very near, you know, the very near distance,” he said.

Further to that last post, Iran earlier threatened to attack northern Israel if Israel hits Beirut again with strikes.

Iran’s central military command warned residents in the area to leave to avoid being harmed in the event that Israel carries out its planned attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Israel Katz, said earlier on Monday that they had instructed the military to strike “terrorist targets” in the southern suburbs for what they described as “repeated and ongoing violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah”.

The Israeli military subsequently issued an evacuation order for residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs – as they have done repeatedly over the last three months – prompting residents to flee en masse, with roads leading out of the area choked with cars.

Donald Trump has told NBC News that he had not been informed of Tehran’s decision to suspend talks with Washington ahead of time but that, “I think it’s fine if they’re done talking.”

“It’s an appropriate thing to say, because they’re better negotiators than they are fighters,” he said in a brief phone call. “But they haven’t informed us of that.”

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there,” the US president added. On Friday, he said he would soon decide on a proposed deal to extend the fragile ceasefire that has been in place since early April. “We’ll keep the blockade,” he said.

He added: “If they don’t want to talk, that’s okay with me. I think it’s fine. I don’t particularly want to talk either. I think we’ve been talking too much, if you want to know the truth. I think going silent would be very good, and that could be for a long time.”

Earlier, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran had said there would be no peace talks with the US until its demands on the cessation of Israeli operations in Lebanon and Gaza are met.

Tehran’s negotiating team was pulling out of message exchanges through mediators with Washington over Israel’s ongoing offensive in Lebanon, Tasnim reported.

Tasnim further reported that Iran and its proxies will look to completely block the strait of Hormuz. It said it will also look to “activate” other fronts, including the Bab el-Mandem strait, which sits off the coast of Yemen.

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said “unequivocal violation of the ceasefire on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts” and the US and Israel would be held responsible.

Thousands of Beirut residents fled their homes on Monday after Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Israeli military to bomb the city’s southern suburbs. The Israeli prime minister had vowed on Sunday to push even further into the country, where the IDF is already occupying large swathes of the south.

Iran’s military central command warned residents of northern Israel to leave in the event that Israel carried out such attacks on Beirut or its southern suburbs.

• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to open “new fronts” and keep the strait of Hormuz closed over Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, state media reported. “Iran considers crossing the red lines in Lebanon and Gaza to mean direct war,” state TV quoted the Guards’ intelligence organisation as saying.

• Israel has issued evacuation orders to residents of seven villages in southern Lebanon, including Houmine al-Faouqa, Bnaafoul, Arab Salim, Roumine, Aazze, Arki and Jbaa. “Out of concern for your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the villages and towns by a distance of at least 1000 meters to open areas,” IDF Arabic language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X.

• The Lebanese parliament speaker has told the US that Hezbollah is ready for a full and immediate ceasefire with Israel and pledged to guarantee its implementation. Nabih Berri informe the Trump administration on Sunday, Berri’s top adviser Ali Hamdan told Axios.

• Israel’s defence minister said there would be “no calm in Beirut” if Hezbollah attacks continued and vowed to establish a military-controlled zone in the area of south Lebanon’s Litani River. “The Dahiyeh in Beirut is no different from the communities in northern Israel – if there is no calm in the north, there will be no calm in Beirut,” Israel Katz said in a statement released by his office, referring to Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold where he and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier ordered strikes.

• Oil prices jumped and equities slid on Monday as Middle East peace talks stumbled and tensions mounted between Iran and the United States. Crude futures shot more than 5% higher as an Iranian news agency announced Tehran had suspended the negotiations with the United States via mediators, AFP reported.

• Israeli airstrikes overnight on southern Lebanon left six people dead, including a Syrian citizen in a village near the city of Nabatiyeh, AP reports, citing Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency. The Israeli military meanwhile said it had intercepted two projectiles launched from Lebanon toward Israeli territory, as well as a suspicious aerial target in the area where Israeli soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported, the military said.

• The ceasefire already in place between Iran and the United States is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon, Iran’s top diplomat said on Monday after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered attacks on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut. “Violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation,” foreign minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X.

• Hezbollah said its fighters were still battling Israeli troops near south Lebanon’s Beaufort castle, a day after Israel said it seized the fortress and troops raised the Israeli flag there. In a statement issued by Hezbollah’s operations room, the group said its fighters were in a “battle of attrition against forces of the Israeli enemy army who are present in the area”.

• US forces intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait late on Sunday, the US military said on Monday. It added that no American personnel were harmed.

• The European Union on Monday urged Israel to halt its military operation in Lebanon, after Israel seized the strategic Beaufort Castle and said it would resume strikes on southern Beirut. “We call on Israel to stop its military escalation in Lebanon and to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.

• A cargo vessel transiting the Gulf about 40 nautical miles southeast of Umm Qasr, Iraq, has been hit by an unknown projectile on its starboard side, causing a large explosion, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said. UKMTO said it was unaware of any immediate environmental impact.

• Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian promised Japan to enable the passage of its ships through the strait of Hormuz, which has been mostly closed since the start of the Middle East war in February. “We will try to provide a smooth and easy passage for Japanese ships,” Pezeshkian told Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi during a phone conversation, according to the presidency.

• US forces have helped dozens of commercial vessels through the strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, according to the New York Times, citing US officials. US Central Command has guided around 70 commercial ships through the strait over the last three weeks, one of the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to open “new fronts” and keep the strait of Hormuz closed over Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, state media reported on Monday.

“Iran considers crossing the red lines in Lebanon and Gaza to mean direct war,” state TV quoted the Guards’ intelligence organisation as saying.

It added:

In return, it is determined to carry out defensive operations by taking meaningful actions and opening new fronts, in addition to preserving the strait of Hormuz equation.

When Hussain Alawieh used to take tourists to Beaufort Castle, they would marvel at the view. The ancient hilltop fort, captured nearly 1,000 years earlier by Crusaders, still offered the same sweeping panoramic views of south Lebanon and the Litani River that empires fought over for a millennia.

On Sunday, the view from the castle was obscured by white phosphorus smoke, the toxic incendiary munition providing a smoke-screen for advancing Israeli soldiers. Out of the fog rose an Israeli flag, and the castle, for the first time in 26 years, was once again conquered.

In the age of drones and surveillance blimps, the value of the ancient hilltop fort is diminished. But to both Israelis and Lebanese, its capture carried psychological weight in a conflict that for six weeks had ground to a deadlock.

“The raising of the Israeli flag and the flag of the Golani Brigade above the castle caused a shock to me and to all southerners and Lebanese people,” said Alawieh, a tour guide based in south Lebanon.

The castle, Alawieh explained, was a symbol of steadfastness and of resistance in south Lebanon. Its thick stone walls helped its survive Israeli aerial bombing in the 1980s when it was used as a base by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, and again, when Israel carried out a detonation in the castle upon its withdrawal in 2000.

“Raising the Israeli flag above it is intended to send a message of psychological domination and defeat to the population, conveying that the ‘sites you considered impregnable have fallen,’” said Alawieh.

The capture of the castle came as Israel’s invasion of south Lebanon lurched forward once again. The pace of the war in Lebanon had slowed since a supposed ceasefire on 17 April. With much of south Lebanon declared a no man’s land by Israel, it was impossible to tell what was happening on the battlefield.

The Lebanese parliament speaker has told the US that Hezbollah is ready for a full and immediate ceasefire with Israel and pledged to guarantee its implementation.

Nabih Berri informed the Trump administration on Sunday, Berri’s top adviser Ali Hamdan told Axios.

Iran’s state TV said on Monday that the probability of the ceasefire between Iran and the United States ending is high if Israeli attacks on Lebanon do not stop.

State TV did not give further details.

A cargo vessel transiting the Gulf about 40 nautical miles southeast of Umm Qasr, Iraq, has been hit by an unknown projectile on its starboard side, causing a large explosion, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Monday.

UKMTO said it was unaware of any immediate environmental impact.

Oil prices jumped and equities slid on Monday as Middle East peace talks stumbled and tensions mounted between Iran and the United States.

Crude futures shot more than five percent higher as an Iranian news agency announced Tehran had suspended the negotiations with the United States via mediators, AFP reported.

The United States and Iran had traded strikes over the weekend and Tehran had insisted that any deal to end the war must cover Israel’s escalating offensive into Lebanon.

The report by the Tasnim news agency cited the breakdown of the ceasefire and clashes in Lebanon as the reasons for the halt in suspending dialogue.

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday promised Japan to enable the passage of its ships through the strait of Hormuz, which has been mostly closed since the start of the Middle East war in February.

“We will try to provide a smooth and easy passage for Japanese ships,” Pezeshkian told Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi during a phone conversation, according to the presidency.

Iran says there will be no peace talks with the US until its demands on the cessation of Israeli operations in Lebanon and Gaza are met, according to the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency.

Tasnim reported that Iran’s negotiating team is pulling out of message exchanges through mediators with the US over Israel’s offensive in Lebanon.

Tasnim further reported that Iran and what it called its “resistance front”, or proxies, will look to completely block the strait of Hormuz. It said it will also look to “activate” other fronts, including the Bab el-Mandem strait, which sits off the coast of Yemen, across the Arabian peninsula from the strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis, an Islamist armed group that controls large parts of Yemen, are allies of Iran – they have previously targeted shipping in the Red Sea and likely the “resistance” referred to by Iran in the statement.

Hezbollah said its fighters were still battling Israeli troops near south Lebanon’s Beaufort castle, a day after Israel said it seized the fortress and troops raised the Israeli flag there.

A statement issued by Hezbollah’s operations room, said its fighters were in a “battle of attrition against forces of the Israeli enemy army who are present in the area”, AFP reports.

Earlier today Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said Israel intends to create a buffer zone around the Litani area of Lebanon. Israel held Beaufort castle from 1982 until 2000, using it as a base until its forces withdrew from Lebanon.

US forces intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait late on Sunday, the US military said on Monday.

It added that no American personnel were harmed.