Waltz says Trump still intends Iran MoU to be signed

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.

Iran was conveying its message to the United States through Qatari mediators in Tehran before Israel’s attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported, citing a source close to the negotiations.

The source was quoting as saying that nothing had yet been finalized in the Iran-US talks.

“Even if all of Iran’s views are incorporated (into the US-Iran memorandum of understanding), no agreement will be signed at the time announced by Donald Trump,” the source added.

The Israeli military said it was preparing for the possibility of fire toward Israel in the coming hours following its strike in Beirut.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir was conducting ongoing situation assessments with relevant commanders.

“The IDF continues to maintain readiness and vigilance for a range of scenarios in defense and offense,” the military said in a statement.

“The IDF will not tolerate fire toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the military said.

Hezbollah commander Ali al-Hajj was killed in Israel’s airstrike on Dahieh in Beirut on Sunday, Al Arabiya reported.

Al Arabiya also reported that the Israeli military carried out three airstrikes on the town of Sajd in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military earlier said it targeted a Hezbollah headquarters in Dahieh in Beirut in response to the Iran-backed group launching three drones toward northern Israel.