Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at how Lebanon jeopardizes the Iran war’s cease-fire, Russia’s threat to China-North Korea relations, and a deadly earthquake in the Philippines.

Iran declared an end to its military operations against Israel on Monday, after an exchange of attacks risked escalating the Middle East conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said that his country’s “fire is on hold,” after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly urged the Israeli leader to back off from further strikes.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at how Lebanon jeopardizes the Iran war’s cease-fire, Russia’s threat to China-North Korea relations, and a deadly earthquake in the Philippines.

Iran declared an end to its military operations against Israel on Monday, after an exchange of attacks risked escalating the Middle East conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said that his country’s “fire is on hold,” after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly urged the Israeli leader to back off from further strikes.

Still, as FP’s John Haltiwanger reports, the latest flare-up demonstrates the folly of trying to divorce Israel’s conflict in Lebanon from the Iran war, as the Trump administration has tried to do.

On Sunday, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli targets in retaliation for continued Israeli strikes on southern Lebanese villages. Israel responded by targeting “terrorist infrastructure” in Beirut’s southern suburbs. According to Lebanon’s health ministry, Israel’s attack hit two apartment buildings, killing two people and wounding at least 20 others, including women and children.

Iran had previously warned that any attack on Beirut could collapse ongoing peace talks with Washington. Following Sunday’s assault, Iran launched 11 ballistic missiles at Israel, targeting two military bases in the country. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, another Iranian proxy group, also claimed an attack on Israel while warning that all Israel-linked vessels in the Red Sea would once again become targets.

Israel quickly traded fire, launching two waves of strikes on central and western Iran that injured at least 15 people and damaged the country’s largest petrochemical complex.

Iran and Hezbollah tried to “impose a new equation” by firing at Israel for its attacks on the Beirut-based proxy group, Netanyahu said on Monday. “This equation is unbearable and unacceptable........

© Foreign Policy