Just when a peace agreement seemed closer than ever, the conflict between the United States and Iran reignited. The escalation of the crisis was driven by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to order the army to strike "terrorist targets in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut."

US President Donald Trump immediately tried to defuse the situation: "I had a very productive phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and there will be no troops heading to Beirut." He reported on his social media account, Truth, that he had "a very good phone call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting would stop, that if Israel doesn't attack them, they won't attack Israel."

A response to Netanyahu's aggression: the attacks, he said, are a response to Hezbollah's "repeated and ongoing violations" of the ceasefire in Lebanon. But for Iran, the ceasefire in Lebanon is "an essential condition for any agreement aimed at ending the war" with the United States, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei stated at a press conference in Tehran. "The United States is also violating the ceasefire, including this morning," he continued. "We will not hesitate to take all measures we deem necessary for Iran's national security" and to help Lebanon resist Israel's "illegal aggression" against the country. This position was reiterated by Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi: the truce between Tehran and Washington is "unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon."

"Its violation on one front is tantamount to a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The United States and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation," he wrote on X. Thus, Iran has decided to suspend the "exchange of messages through intermediaries" with the United States in protest against "Zionist crimes" in Lebanon. According to Tasnim, Tehran's armed forces and "the entire Resistance Front" are "determined" to "respond to Zionist crimes."

The truce in Lebanon, it is emphasized, was "part of the prerequisites for the ceasefire, and now that ceasefire has been violated on all fronts." Iran and what it calls its "resistance front," or allied groups, will now attempt to completely block the Strait of Hormuz, The Houthis, an Islamist armed group that controls large swathes of Yemen, are allies of Iran: in the past, they have targeted maritime traffic in the Red Sea and likely also the "resistance" Iran refers to in the statement.