The Levant Files

  Iran has told the United States that any negotiations to end the recent war are conditional on full adherence to a ceasefire on all fronts, especially in Lebanon, where Tehran says Israeli attacks are continuing in violation of the truce, Tasnim News Agency reported Thursday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei, speaking to reporters in Tehran, said conducting talks is dependent on Washington meeting its commitments under a ceasefire understanding brokered by Pakistan. "The halting of the war in Lebanon is an integral part of the ceasefire understanding proposed by Pakistan, and as the prime minister of that country also explicitly announced, the United States is committed to stopping the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and any action or position contrary to this commitment would be tantamount to the United States not adhering to its commitment," Baqaei said, according to Tasnim News Agency. Baqaei strongly condemned what he called crimes committed by the ...

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that Israel will open direct negotiations with Lebanon focused on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations, even as Israeli forces remain inside Lebanese territory and both sides exchanged fire. "The negotiations will focus on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon," the prime minister said in a statement released by his office. He instructed his cabinet to begin the talks "as soon as possible," citing the active warfront with Hezbollah and the upcoming Iran-US peace discussions in Islamabad. The announcement came minutes before Hezbollah launched a fresh barrage of rockets toward northern Israel, triggering sirens across the Galilee. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the rocket fire.  Who Will Negotiate and When Israeli sources told The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz that the talks are expected to begin next week in Washington. Israel will ...

  According to Iran's state-affiliated Press TV, a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire has been agreed after 40 days of conflict, with Washington reportedly accepting a comprehensive 10-point Iranian proposal.   Iran's military and political establishment is framing the ceasefire reached this week as a decisive strategic victory, with senior officials insisting the United States failed to achieve any of its objectives in the 40-day conflict that began on February 28. Brigadier General Mohammad Akrami-Nia, spokesperson for Iran's Army, stated on Thursday, according to Press TV, that "the enemy failed to achieve any of these goals, including macro, operational, and covert [objectives], and suffered a multilayered defeat in practice." He described the US and Israel as having entered the war aiming at "overthrowing the establishment of the Islamic Republic, making a regime change, and preparing the ground for the country's disintegration" — none of which, he arg...

The two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran announced on the night of April 7–8 is unlikely to bring lasting calm to the Middle East, with both sides expected to use the pause to significantly reinforce their military positions, according to Russian newspaper Izvestia, citing multiple Russian military analysts. According to Izvestia, the USS George H.W. Bush carrier strike group is already en route to the Persian Gulf region, along with the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer carrying US Marines — a deployment the paper notes is proceeding regardless of the ceasefire. Once in position, the American naval air component in the region would exceed 200 carrier-based strike aircraft, Izvestia reports. The Russian outlet quotes military analyst Yuri Knutov as saying that Washington has so far failed to achieve its core strategic objectives: the Iranian government remains in place, the country has not been partitioned, and both its missile and nuclear programmes are still function...

A Pakistan-brokered ceasefire between the United States and Iran, announced barely hours earlier, appeared on the verge of collapse on Wednesday evening as Israel launched its heaviest bombardment of Lebanon since the war began, Iran re-closed the Strait of Hormuz, and Tehran's parliament speaker declared further negotiations "unreasonable." The two-week truce, which followed 41 days of intense fighting between Iran and a US-Israeli coalition, had briefly raised hopes of a diplomatic off-ramp in one of the most devastating regional conflicts in decades. Instead, the first day of the ceasefire degenerated into a cascading series of violations, contradictory statements, and fresh bloodshed — raising the spectre of an immediate return to full-scale hostilities. The Ceasefire and Its Contradictions The agreement was announced on Tuesday evening Washington time by President Donald Trump, who described a 10-point Iranian proposal, conveyed through Pakistani Prime Minister Shehb...

  By Dr. Nikolaos Stelgias  In a remarkable display of diplomatic achievement, the United States, Israel, and Iran announced a ceasefire on Tuesday night that has already proven itself entirely indistinguishable from the conflict it was meant to end — at least if you happen to live in Lebanon. The good news arrived swiftly: US President Donald Trump announced the historic pause in hostilities, and the guns fell silent. Or rather, some of them did. In some places. Sort of. By Wednesday morning, the IDF had struck over 100 Hezbollah command centers and military sites across Beirut and southern Lebanon in what it proudly described as its "largest coordinated wave of strikes" since the launch of Operation Roaring Lion. One can only imagine how the smaller waves must have felt. The strikes targeted Hezbollah headquarters, intelligence facilities, missile infrastructure, naval units, and the elite Radwan force — a comprehensive to-do list that, by any reasonable measure, suggests t...

While US and Israeli strikes continue to degrade Iran's military infrastructure, Tehran is quietly winning the battle that matters most — the psychological and civil arena — according to a sharp analytical piece published in the Israeli daily Maariv by reserve Lieutenant Colonel Amit Yagur. Yagur argues that the fundamental flaw in the Western approach to the conflict lies in its almost exclusive focus on the military domain. Washington, he writes, operates under the assumption that stripping Iran of its military capabilities will force the regime into submission. Israel, until recently, held a similar logic in Gaza and Lebanon, measuring success through strikes on senior figures and weapons depots. Iran, by contrast, has abandoned any pretense of military parity from the outset. The regime, Yagur contends, has accepted its military inferiority and is willing to absorb military losses in exchange for dominance in the arena where it has chosen to compete: the battle for perception a...

The Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran has issued a statement concerning what it describes as the United States’ acceptance of Iran’s conditions. The full text, rendered in polished formal English, is as follows: In its unjust, unlawful, and criminal war against the Iranian nation, the enemy has suffered an undeniable, historic, and crushing defeat. Through the sacrifice of the martyrs, the guidance of the leadership, the courage and dedication of Iran’s fighters on the front lines, and above all the historic, steadfast, and resolute presence of the Iranian people from the very first days of the war, Iran has achieved a major victory and compelled the United States to accept its ten-point plan. According to the statement, the United States has, in principle, committed itself to guaranteeing non-aggression, maintaining Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, accepting uranium enrichment, lifting all primary and secondary sanctions, terminating all resolu...

A dramatic overnight agreement between Washington and Tehran has produced a fragile two-week ceasefire in the six-week-old US-Israel war on Iran, brokered through Pakistani mediation, even as missile exchanges continued across the region hours after the announcement and a bitter dispute erupted over whether Lebanon is included in the deal. US President Donald Trump announced the agreement late Tuesday, describing it as a "total and complete victory" and declaring it "a big day for world peace." Iran's Supreme National Security Council issued its own triumphalist statement, claiming the enemy had suffered "an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat" and that Washington had been compelled to accept Tehran's 10-point proposal as the basis for negotiations. Both sides, in other words, claimed to have won. The Ten-Point Framework At the heart of the agreement is Iran's 10-point ceasefire proposal, submitted to the US side through Pakistani intermed...