Iran's Ghalibaf threatens US, Israeli assets in ME as 'legitimate targets' after strikes in Beirut

The US naval blockade of Iran and ​its green light on Sunday ‌for Israel to escalate attacks in Lebanon make US bases ​and Israeli assets in ​the Middle East legitimate targets, ⁠Iran's top negotiator said in ​a post on X.

The comments ​from Iran's Parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, followed Israeli attacks on ​the southern suburbs of ​Lebanon's capital, a stronghold of Hezbollah.

"They ⁠are neither committed to a ceasefire nor believe in dialogue, and through the naval ​blockade ​and violation ⁠of agreements regarding Lebanon, they showed that ​they only understand the ​language ⁠of power," Ghalibaf said in an apparent reference to ⁠the ​US and Israel.

Israel struck the outskirts of Beirut on Sunday for the first time since the US ‌announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week, and an Iranian lawmaker threatened to retaliate, putting talks to end the wider war into new jeopardy.

Iran has long said any peace deal with the United States would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who fired across the border in solidarity with Tehran.

There was no immediate ​formal response from Tehran to Sunday's Israeli strikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut, but influential Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei posted on X that ​Iran would deliver a "decisive and painful response".

"Look at the sky of the occupied territories tonight," wrote Rezaei, who serves as the ⁠spokesperson for parliament's national security committee.

Washington and Tehran have shown little progress in reaching a deal to end the war that President Donald Trump launched in February with a ​campaign of air strikes alongside Israel against Iran. Trump has repeatedly threatened to restart the strikes unless there is an agreement soon.

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"We're very close to a deal, or ​I'm going to blow the hell out of them," Trump told NBC News in an interview, broadcast to mark 100 days of the conflict. The comments were recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday as Trump visited his New Jersey golf course.

Trump leans on Netanyahu

Trump has leaned on Israel to scale back its campaign in Lebanon to allow room for a peace deal with Iran, ​including rebuking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last week. After the call, Netanyahu called off air strikes on Beirut and agreed to the latest truce ​plan with the Lebanese government.

But Israel has never fully halted its campaign in Lebanon, which has killed thousands of people and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Hezbollah, which was ‌not party ⁠to the truce and would be dismantled under its terms, has also continued attacks and said it would not give up its weapons unless Israel halts fighting and withdraws.

Netanyahu said Sunday's strike on Beirut's southern outskirts, a district known as Dahiyeh that has long been a Hezbollah stronghold, was ordered in response to Hezbollah firing toward Israel.

The Israeli military had earlier said it had intercepted two projectiles fired over the border. It issued an evacuation order for the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and the surrounding areas ​ahead of possible strikes there.

Elsewhere in Beirut ​on Sunday, mourners held a military ⁠funeral for Brigadier General Wissam Sabra, a senior military officer killed in a strike on his vehicle in the south the previous day.

The wider war has been stalemated since the United States and Israel paused their attacks on Iran in early April, with ​Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for Middle East oil. Washington has imposed ​its own blockade of ⁠Iranian ports.

Though the sides have both said they are close to a preliminary agreement that would reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations in recent days that have included attacks on nearby Arab states hosting US bases.

US forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, both in the Strait of Hormuz, early on Saturday ⁠after shooting ​down drones launched by Iran that US Central Command said posed a threat to maritime traffic. Two ​more Iranian attack drones that were threatening shipping in the strait were shot down, the US military said late on Saturday.

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Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they retaliated against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait's army ​said it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting in material damage but no casualties.