Iran suspends US talks over Lebanon fighting as ceasefire dispute widens

Iran has said it is suspending indirect talks with the United States over the continuing fighting in Lebanon, linking the decision to Israel's military offensive there. The move was reported on Monday and comes as Iranian officials argue that the ceasefire framework they say was agreed with Washington applies beyond one front. Tehran said the exchange of texts through a mediator would stop while what it described as Israeli violations continue.

Sponsored

The immediate trigger cited by Iranian officials was Israel's continued offensive in Lebanon and the strikes around Beirut. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the ceasefire between Iran and the US was "a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon", and warned that a violation on one front amounted to a violation everywhere. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament and Iran's chief negotiator, made a similar argument, saying the escalation in Lebanon showed US noncompliance with the ceasefire.

The reports said the indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran had been continuing since a ceasefire came into effect on 8 April, with Pakistan acting as mediator. They also said a draft memorandum of understanding was being reviewed by both sides. Iran's Tasnim news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Tehran would halt "talks and the exchange of texts through a mediator" because of the "continuation of the Zionist regime's crimes in Lebanon".

The suspension matters because it ties a separate diplomatic track to the wider regional war and raises the risk that one theatre of fighting could disrupt another. Iran is presenting the Lebanon offensive as part of the same ceasefire dispute, rather than as a separate conflict. That position increases pressure on the already fragile talks and complicates efforts to keep channels open between Tehran and Washington.

Sponsored

The comments also came against a backdrop of broader regional escalation. The reports said Israel has deepened its invasion of south Lebanon and threatened further strikes in Beirut, while the Israeli military issued a forced displacement order for residents of the southern Beirut suburbs of Dahiye. One report said Israeli ground forces had reached their deepest point in Lebanon in 26 years, underlining the scale of the current operation.

Iranian state media also said there was a possibility that the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington could end over Israel's continued attacks on Lebanon. The Islamic Republic's central military command warned that if Israel attacked Beirut, residents of northern Israel should leave if they did not want to be harmed. Separately, one report said Iranian officials were also linking the dispute to what they described as a US siege of Iranian ports, broadening the list of grievances attached to the talks.

The diplomatic row sits within a wider pattern of indirect engagement and confrontation between Iran and the US, with mediation and text exchanges used to keep negotiations alive. The reports suggest that the current process has been fragile enough that military developments in Lebanon can quickly spill into the talks. They also indicate that Iranian officials are trying to frame the ceasefire as a regional arrangement rather than a narrow bilateral understanding.

What remains unclear is whether the suspension is temporary or whether it marks a longer break in the negotiations. It is also not clear how the mediator will respond, or whether either side will try to separate the Lebanon fighting from the wider ceasefire process. The next developments to watch are any further Israeli strikes on Beirut, any Iranian military response, and whether the indirect talks resume or stall further.