Iran threatened to abandon negotiations with the United States and launch a military response after an Israeli strike hit the outskirts of Beirut, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, imperiling a nuclear deal that President Donald Trump had described as close to completion.
MSI previously reported that the renewed fighting has repeatedly upended ceasefire efforts in the region. Trump rebuked Israel following the strikes, calling them disproportionate, the Journal said. The Israeli military had said the strikes were a response to earlier drone attacks by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The attack represents the latest breakdown in a monthslong cycle of escalation that has defied repeated attempts at a ceasefire. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon-Israel border for months, and the fighting has drawn in Iran directly, including waves of Iranian missiles fired at Israel earlier in June.
According to the Journal, the continuing conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militants has become a major hurdle to Trump’s pursuit of a peace deal with Tehran. The president had said in recent weeks that an agreement with Iran was imminent.