Senior Iran lawmaker says 'strong response coming' after Beirut strike

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Israel’s strike on Beirut was not expected to disrupt plans for a preliminary memorandum with Iran to be signed.

“From all I know, we are on track. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” Hegseth said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

“We’re attuned to what’s happening with Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel, which they need to stop doing, and Iran needs to encourage them to stop doing that in very adamant ways,” he said.

Hegseth said Israel was “very measured in its response,” adding that it understood “we’re on the verge of a deal.”

“I don’t expect that to disrupt,” he said. “If Iran wants this to hold, they need to pull back Hezbollah, no doubt.”

Hegseth said any arrangement with Iran would require its nuclear material to be destroyed, removed or downblended, with inspections and oversight.

“Nuclear material will be destroyed and removed. The nuclear program will be dismantled,” he said.

He also said the US military option would remain in place if Iran failed to comply with the terms of a deal.

“We’ll make sure the military option is there,” he said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said decisions on war and negotiations with the United States rest with Ians's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the Supreme National Security Council, and that all factions must follow those decisions.

Speaking at a meeting with media officials, Pezeshkian said it was regrettable to use labels such as “treason” and “selling out the country” against Iran’s negotiating team.

He said commentary on state TV about the war and talks with Washington does not necessarily reflect the views of the Supreme National Security Council, the Supreme Defense Council or Mojtaba Khamenei’s guidance.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said President Donald Trump still intended for the preliminary framework of a peace deal with Iran to be signed.

“The president has every intent for it to happen. I’ll leave the actual details and timing to the White House,” Waltz said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“The Iranians are incredibly difficult negotiators, coupled with the fact that they’re having a very hard time getting guidance from their supreme leader, and they’re not always on the same page within their team,” he added.

Waltz said Trump and US negotiators were confident the deal would happen.

“They have every intent of getting this done today,” he said.

President Donald Trump said Israel’s attack on Beirut should not have happened and called on all sides to stand down.

“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process,” he said.

“We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should stand down,” Trump said.

“There should be no more attacks by Israel anywhere in Lebanon, but there should also be no more attacks by any other party, including Hezbollah, against Israel,” he said.

“This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!” Trump added.

Former US President Barack Obama said a new agreement with Iran was unlikely to improve significantly on the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

“It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place, which had worked for a long stretch of time before the United States pulled out,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

“I’m hopeful that bombing stops and ordinary people are no longer suffering as a consequence of the war,” he added.

Obama said the crisis showed the limits of using force to resolve foreign policy problems.

“The notion that we can just bully our way or bomb our way to solutions may sometimes seem appealing,” Obama said, adding that diplomacy could produce deals “that don’t solve 100% of the problem but solve 80, 90% of the problem” while avoiding war.