Israeli Beirut Strike Threatens US-Iran Peace Deal
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- Israeli military struck what it called a Hezbollah command center in Beirut's Dahieh neighborhood, killing at least 3 and injuring 15 (per Lebanon state media), in retaliation for Hezbollah firing aerial targets at northern Israel.
- Donald Trump said the strike "should not have happened particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran" and warned there should be "no more attacks by Israel anywhere in Lebanon."
- Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the attack showed the US was not fulfilling its commitments, and senior military official Brig Gen Mohammad Jafar Assadi warned Iran would respond.
- Israel's political and military leadership has privately trashed leaked terms of the US-Iran deal, with an Israeli military official calling it "very bad" and "catastrophic" to Ma'ariv, and a defence official telling N12 that "none of the goals set by Israel have received an immediate response."
- Iran insists any truce must include an end to the war in Lebanon — a condition Israeli officials reject, saying military operations against Hezbollah must continue.
- Lebanon was drawn into the broader Israel-US-Iran war on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets after an Israeli strike killed Iran's supreme leader, following US and Israeli strikes on Iran that began 28 February.
Why it matters: The strike risks collapsing a US-Iran agreement that Israeli officials — citing leaked terms — say fails to translate battlefield gains against Hezbollah and Iran into a strategic victory, putting Washington publicly at odds with its closest ally at the moment a deal is supposed to be signed.
