The ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran is facing serious challenges, just hours after it was concluded early on Wednesday morning. As both Washington and Tehran claimed victory in the 39-day war, Israel launched massive strikes against several targets across Lebanon, including residential buildings in Beirut.

Israel was taken aback by US President Donald Trump’s last-minute decision to accept a Pakistani-brokered offer of a two-week ceasefire, effective immediately. On Tuesday, Trump had stunned the world by threatening, in his most incendiary statement yet, to reduce Iran to rubble if his deadline passed that night without Tehran opening up the Strait of Hormuz and agreeing to a deal.

Iran rejected the ultimatum but last-minute mediation by Islamabad produced a breakthrough. At the eleventh hour, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, delivered Tehran’s conditional acceptance, with Iran’s 10-point plan to serve as the basis for negotiations.

Trump, for his part, tweeted that Iran had already accepted most of Washington’s 15-point proposal to end hostilities.

Israel was quick to announce that while it would honor the ceasefire deal and halt its attacks on Iran, the Lebanese front would not be included in the pause. Following the subsequent Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday, Iran declared that it was closing the Strait of Hormuz again and reconsidering its participation in the truce, and threatened retaliation against Israeli violations.

Having been offered a diplomatic off-ramp to end a war that has proven as unpopular domestically as it is abroad, Trump now finds himself in a position in which to safeguard the truce he must........

© Eurasia Review