Iran said on Friday that Iranian assets must be unblocked and a ceasefire take hold in Lebanon before peace talks with the United States can proceed, throwing last-minute doubt over negotiations scheduled for Saturday in Pakistan.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that the two measures had been previously agreed with Washington and that talks would not start until they are fulfilled, amid mounting dispute over the ceasefire terms.
This was echoed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also demanded an end to Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon. Both officials are expected to be at the talks, Pakistani sources said.
11 killed in Israeli strikes
Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes have killed at least 11 people in southern Lebanon amid growing fears that the continuing violence could threaten the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
Lebanese officials said that at least 10 security personnel were killed in an Israeli air strike on a government building in Nabatieh on Friday, said Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Tyre, Lebanon.
He said the death toll was likely to increase as civil defence continues to search for survivors in the rubble.
Israel has been launching “non-stop” strikes across southern Lebanon since the morning, said Hitto.
Earlier, an Israeli air strike on the southern town of Hannawiya killed one person and wounded another, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported. NNA also said that Israeli forces destroyed residential areas in Aita al-Shaab, with additional attacks on al-Majadel in the Tyre district.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah responded by firing rockets towards towns in northern Israel, including Kiryat Shmona, Metula and Misgav Am. In a statement posted on Telegram, Hezbollah said, “These attacks would continue until the Israeli-American aggression against the country and the people stopped.”
Hezbollah also said it targeted Israel’s Ashdod naval base with missiles, two days after deadly Israeli air attacks on Beirut left more than 300 people dead.
The attack was in response to Israel’s “violation of the ceasefire and its repeated attacks on Beirut, and after the Resistance adhered to the ceasefire while the enemy did not”, the group said in a statement.