Trump's ceasefire with Iran mired in dispute over Israel's war in Lebanon

Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday accused Israel of "flouting" the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and violating ‌international law with a massive round of airstrikes on Lebanon.

Spain has been among the most vocal ⁠critics in Europe of the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and Israel's parallel war against Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Madrid closed its airspace to aircraft involved in the war.

"Yesterday we saw how Israel, flouting the ceasefire and in violation of international law, dropped hundreds of ‌bombs ⁠on Lebanon," Albares told said in Spain's parliament on Thursday, hours after announcing that the country's ambassador would return to Tehran "to take up his post again and ⁠reopen our embassy, and for us to join in this effort for peace from ⁠every possible quarter, including from the Iranian capital itself."

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar slammed Spain for the move, saying in a post on social media: "The Iranian terror regime is renewing the executions of its citizens, protesters, and political opponents. Spain is reopening its embassy in Tehran. Hand in hand. Without shame.  To the disgrace of the world."

Oil prices rebounded Thursday and stock markets were flat or slightly lower in Asia as the dispute over the Iran war ceasefire revived concerns that the conflict could reignite, and as investors assessed the likely lingering effects of damage already done to the global economy.

Despite President Trump's insistence, there was little indication that oil and other commodities would start moving freely again through the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran kept its grip on the vital waterway. 

"You have a fifth of the world's oil supply moving through a corridor that is still effectively under the influence of one of the parties to the conflict," Nigel Green, CEO at the deVere Group financial firm told the Reuters news agency. "That's not stability."

That lack of certainty pushed U.S. crude futures back up 3.1% to $97.33 a barrel early Thursday, as global benchmark Brent Crude inched back up more than 2% to trade around the $98 mark.

In Asia, which gets much of its energy directly from the Persian Gulf, stock prices slumped Thursday after a sharp spike the previous day on optimism over Mr. Trump's initial ceasefire announcement. Japan's Nikkei was largely flat, South Korean shares dipped 0.4%, Chinese blue chips slipped 0.6%, and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.7%, according to Reuters.

Wednesday's surge also looked definitively over on Wall Street, with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures both down about 0.2% early Thursday.

Oil prices have been up and down in recent weeks, but overall, since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, they are up about 40%, and analysts say that will drive up prices for a wide range of consumer goods and services for months to come.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told CBS News partner network BBC that Israel's attacks on Lebanon Wednesday were "a grave violation" of the ceasefire agreement, adding that the U.S. must choose "between war and ceasefire - you cannot have it both at the same time."

"You cannot ask for a ceasefire and then accept terms and conditions, accept areas the ceasefire is applied to, and name Lebanon, exactly Lebanon in that, and then your ally just start a massacre," Khatibzadeh said. 

When asked if Iran would tell Hezbollah, its proxy group in Lebanon, to stop firing rockets into Israel, Khatibzadeh said "it is quite clear that Hezbollah is [a] pure Lebanese freedom movement."

He did not deny that Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers help train and arm Hezbollah fighters, but said "it is not true that they are acting on behalf of us." He said the agreement between the U.S. and Iran applied to each country and its allies.

Despite Israel's attacks in Lebanon, Khatibzadeh said Iran remained "very much focused on getting [an agreement] done."

On the Strait of Hormuz, Khatibzadeh said: "Definitely, we are going to provide security for safe passage and it is going to happen after the United States actually withdraws this aggression."

He said Iran would determine a "protocol which is going to run from now on on safe passage in the Strait of Hormuz" with Oman "and, of course, with [the] international community." 

"I think that we have shown to everybody that energy security is important for Iran, it's important for this body of water in the Persian Gulf, and we are going to abide by the international norms and international law … If safe passage mean[s] that a new protocol that ensure[s] forever that this body of water will be peaceful, then that's okay" but that safety should be two-sided, Khatibzadeh said.

The diplomat said Iran had "many doubts" about the prospects for a final peace agreement with the U.S., suggesting Tehran believed Washington could just be exhausting diplomatic channels but planning to revert to military force, or "dictating and not compromising." 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel was continuing "to strike Hezbollah with force, precision, and determination," despite allegations from Iran and the international community that it was violating the ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran and jeopardizing a chance at a deal to end the war.

"In Beirut, we eliminated Ali Youssef Kharshi, the personal secretary of Hezbollah terror organization Secretary-General Naim Qassem and one of the people closest to him. At the same time, overnight, the IDF struck a series of terror infrastructures in southern Lebanon: crossings used to transfer thousands of weapons, rockets, and launchers, as well as weapons depots, launchers, and Hezbollah headquarters," Netanyahu said.

"Our message is clear: Whoever acts against Israeli civilians will be struck. We will continue to strike Hezbollah wherever required, until we restore full security to the residents of the north."

CBS News

Sirens blared early Thursday morning in a few Israeli communities along the northern border with Lebanon, near the city of Kiryat Shmona, which has been targeted repeatedly during the war by rockets fired by the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.

In a statement, Hezbollah, long designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and Israel, said it had attacked Manara in northern Israel Thursday morning with rocket fire.

"This response will continue until the Israeli-American aggression against our country and our people ceases," the group said.

Following the announcement of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the deal did not extend to the conflict in Lebanon. Iran, and Pakistan, which brokered the ceasefire, disagree on that point.

Lebanon's health ministry said at least 180 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday alone - a wave of attacks that Israel's military called its largest in a month, hitting 100 purported Hezbollah targets in just 10 minutes. The health ministry said commercial and residential areas in central Beirut were hit without warning. 

CBS/AP

President Trump has said Vice President JD Vance and senior envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will all attend peace talks with Iran this weekend in Islamabad, Pakistan. 

Vance sounded optimistic as he left Hungary on Wednesday, telling reporters there were actually "a lot of points of agreement" between the U.S. and Iran and that "ceasefires are always messy." 

Iran has said it will participate in the talks but has yet to confirm who will lead its delegation or when they will arrive.

The United Nations secretary-general on Wednesday warned that ongoing Israeli military activity in Lebanon "poses a grave risk" to the fragile US-Iran truce, his spokesperson said in a statement.

"The ongoing military activity in Lebanon poses a grave risk to the ceasefire and the efforts toward a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region. The Secretary-General reiterates his call to all parties to immediately cease hostilities," a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

The Lebanese health ministry reported that at least 182 people were killed and 890 wounded by Israeli strikes on Wednesday.     

President Trump said late Wednesday that all U.S. military personnel and hardware would remain in the Middle East amid the ongoing ceasefire and negotiations with Iran.

"All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with," the president wrote on Truth Social.

Mr. Trump went on to say that if the terms of the deal were not met, "then the 'Shootin' Starts,' bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before."

He reiterated that the deal requires that Iran not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon and that the Strait of Hormuz be "OPEN & SAFE."

"In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest," Mr. Trump added. 

Iran announced alternative routes on Thursday local time for ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, citing the risk of sea mines in the main zone of the vital waterway.

"All ships intending to transit the Strait of Hormuz are hereby notified that in order to comply with the principles of maritime safety and to be protected from possible collisions with sea mines...they should take alternative routes for traffic in the Strait of Hormuz," Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement quoted by Iranian state media.

The statement shared instructions for an alternative entry and exit route through the strait.

Last month, U.S. officials told CBS News that there were at least a dozen underwater mines planted by Iran in the strait according to American intelligence assessments. 

CBS/AFP