Iran says ‘no point’ in US talks after Beirut strike

TEHRAN: Iran said on Sunday there was “no point” in peace talks with the US, accusing it of failing to uphold its commitments and casting doubt on a deal that Donald Trump had insisted would be signed imminently.

The latest hurdle came hours after Israel — which launched the war alongside the US in February — said its military had carried out strikes targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The US president had previously said a deal to end the war in the Middle East would be signed as early as Sunday and that the blockaded Strait of Hormuz would reopen immediately, though Iran had offered a less concrete timeline.

“The Zionists’ aggression against Dahieh once again showed that the United States either lacks the will to implement its commitments or lacks the ability to do so,” Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X, referring to the suburbs.

“If you do not have the will or the ability to fulfil your commitments, then there is no point in talking about continuing down this path.”

Trump — who over weeks of negotiations repeatedly declared a deal with Iran was all but concluded — had said on Saturday that the accord was “scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL”.

But Iran has insisted that any agreement to end the Middle East war also include the parallel conflict in Lebanon, and Israel’s last strikes on the Lebanese capital a week ago drew a retaliatory Iranian missile barrage.

Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Jafar Asadi said the latest Israeli strikes “will not go unanswered”.

A US official said Friday that the deal on the table included Lebanon, which was drawn into the wider war when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2.

A statement from the foreign ministry of Pakistan, which has been a key mediator between the warring parties, had also said that the deal’s signing was planned for Sunday.

But Iran’s Fars news agency, citing “a well-informed source close to the Iranian negotiating team”, reported Sunday that Tehran had “not yet taken or announced its final decision”.