Iran has suspended the passage of oil ships through the Strait of Hormuz following Israel's continued strikes on Lebanon, Iran's Fars News Agency reported on Wednesday. This may result in a dramatic escalation that threatens to unravel the US-Iran ceasefire agreement within hours of it taking effect.
Tehran simultaneously warned it may withdraw from the truce altogether if Israeli attacks on Lebanon do not stop.
The statement came as Israel's military on Wednesday said it carried out its largest coordinated strike in Lebanon since launching its latest offensive in March, claiming to have hit more than 100 Hezbollah-linked targets within a span of 10 minutes.
According to a knowledgeable source cited by Iran's Tasnim News Agency, Iran is "currently considering the possibility of exiting the ceasefire agreement due to the Zionist regime's continued violations through its attacks on Lebanon."
The source stressed that the cessation of war on all fronts, including against what Tehran called the "heroic Islamic Resistance in Lebanon", had been accepted by the United States as part of the two-week ceasefire plan. Israel's continued strikes on Lebanon since Wednesday morning, the source said, amounted to a clear violation of those terms.
The unnamed official also disclosed that Iran's armed forces were simultaneously identifying targets in response to Israeli actions in Lebanon, even as Tehran evaluated whether to formally exit the agreement. "If America cannot control its rabid dog in the region, Iran will exceptionally help it in this matter — and it will do so with force," Tasnim quoted the source as saying.
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The warning directly reflects the central fault line in the ceasefire deal. When Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the truce on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, he said it included "Lebanon and elsewhere." Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, immediately pushed back, insisting the ceasefire does not cover Lebanon, where Israeli ground forces are engaged in active operations against Hezbollah.
The dispute over Lebanon's inclusion has now emerged as the most immediate threat to the ceasefire's survival. With US Vice President JD Vance already describing the truce as "fragile", Tehran's counter-warning, and Fars News Agency's report of halted oil ship passage, suggests the two-week window for peace talks in Islamabad may be narrowing faster than anyone anticipated.
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