Iran is halting indirect negotiations with the US after Israel ordered troops to push deeper into Lebanon to battle Tehran-backed Hezbollah, the Iranian news agency Tasnim said on Monday, complicating diplomatic efforts to end three months of war.
Tasnim said the Islamic Republic's negotiating team was stopping exchanging messages with Washington through mediators over attacks on Lebanon, where the US-Israeli war against Iran has reignited Israel's conflict with Hezbollah.
The move poses a further obstacle to hopes of a swift end to the crisis, after Iran said it had attacked a US air base following weekend US strikes on Iranian military targets that put further strain on a fragile ceasefire.
Oil prices rose more than $5 a barrel after the Tasnim report.
US President Donald Trump had earlier reiterated on social media that he believed Tehran wants to reach a deal. But hopes of a breakthrough were tempered by comments by Iranian officials criticising the "constantly changing" US negotiating stance.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also raised Lebanon, where another ceasefire is in place, as a stumbling block.
"Violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation," he said on X.
FRAYING CEASEFIRES
The war launched by the US and Israel on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon.
It has also caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global supply route for oil and liquefied natural gas.
Tasnim said Iran and the Resistance Front, which includes its Shi'ite allies in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, had set an agenda to completely block the strait and activate other fronts, including the Bab El Mandeb Strait, to "punish" Israel and its supporters.
If the Houthis, Iran's allies in Yemen, open a new front in the conflict, one obvious target would be the Bab El Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen, a shipping chokepoint and narrow passageway that controls sea traffic towards the Suez Canal.
Referring to Iran's demands on Lebanon, Tasnim said "there will be no talks until Iran and the resistance's views on this matter are met."
Iran and the US have sporadically traded blows despite their ceasefire, which has been in place since early April, while Pakistan has been trying to mediate a durable peace agreement.
The US military said it had at the weekend struck Iranian air defences, a ground control station and two drones that were threatening ships after "aggressive Iranian actions", including shooting down a US drone over international waters.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday it had targeted an air base used by the US in response to an attack on southern Iran.
It did not identify the base, but Kuwait activated air defences on Monday and denounced Iranian missile and drone attacks, which it said were undermining efforts to reduce tensions in the region.
US forces intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait late on Sunday, the US military said on Monday, adding that no American personnel were harmed.
STOP NEGATIVE 'CHIRPING', TRUMP SAYS
In a late-night social media post, US President Donald Trump said Iran "really wants to make a deal".
He berated critics, including what he described as "seemingly unpatriotic Republicans", for negative “chirping” about the negotiations to end the conflict.
"Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!" he said.
But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei accused Washington on Monday of sending contradictory messages and said this would not work as a negotiating tactic.
"The other party is constantly changing its views and putting forward new or contradictory demands (...) it is natural that this situation will prolong negotiations," Baghaei said.
Baghaei said Iran viewed Israeli actions in the region, including in Lebanon, as inseparable from those of the US.
SIDES AT ODDS ON SEVERAL ISSUES
Trump is under pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get US gasoline prices down before November congressional elections, as voters show increasing frustration over rising prices.
At the same time, he faces a potential backlash from Iran hawks in his own party over any concessions to Tehran.
Trump has said his main aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran denies planning to develop a nuclear arsenal.
The sides are also at odds on other issues, such as Tehran's demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenue frozen in foreign banks.
Iran also wants the US to lift a blockade of its ports, imposed after Tehran effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the war.
Israel's war in Lebanon with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia is another impediment to a deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the battle against Hezbollah.
Netanyahu on Monday ordered the military to attack targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
His office accused Hezbollah of repeated violations of a ceasefire agreed in late April.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Netanyahu on the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and has proposed a plan to allow for "gradual de-escalation," a US official said.
Trump says Iran really wants to make a deal with the US
Israel's Netanyahu orders attacks in Beirut's southern suburbs
Malaysia bars under-16s from signing up for social media
Kuwaiti forces deal with missile, drone attacks on Monday
