US President Donald Trump confirmed that Washington has for the first time initiated direct contact with Hezbollah and that he has agreed to a ceasefire towards Israel.
" We spoke with Hezbollah, and we didn't know they were talking — we actually spoke to them for the first time," he told reporters at the White House. Yesterday they agreed not to shoot."
Trump explained that the United States is "trying to separate Iran from the tensions in Lebanon," noting that the ceasefire file there is "different from anywhere else in the world."
He added that his government is working to separate the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz from the ongoing fighting in Lebanon, in an attempt to prevent the two tracks from becoming entangled.
The US ambassador in Beirut lies to Trump
The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump was following up on the file and that he had communicated with Ambassador Nada Mouawad on the matter, "without any channels of communication with Hezbollah", which reiterates its rejection of direct negotiations and sees them as a "concession".
Trump said on Monday evening that he had had a fruitful call with high-ranking Hezbollah officials, without naming them, before announcing a ceasefire agreement had been reached and Israel had agreed not to bomb the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Trump: Iran is about to sign nuclear deal
Trump stressed that negotiations with Iran are "going very well," and said, "A round of talks could take place by the end of the week, and those negotiations could lead to results by the end of the week as well.
He added that Iran was "close to signing a deal," and that the United States would prefer the deal to be in writing if possible.
The US president stressed that Washington will not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon, pointing out that his country will get Iranian enriched uranium, including highly enriched uranium, "not too soon."
Sharp messages: We don't want a long war
Trump has made clear that the United States can continue the war "for another two or three weeks and wipe out everyone," but he prefers to reach a deal that achieves the same result "without killing everyone."
He considered that the Iranian leadership has "changed three times" and that the situation with it is "volatile and anything can happen."
Trump reiterated that "Iran has agreed to our nuclear dust and we have crushed nuclear facilities and materials buried underground," claiming that the current deal, if made with Iran, would be the opposite of the previous agreement signed by Obama.