Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 16 people Saturday, including two children, less than a day after Israel and Hezbollah implemented a fresh ceasefire at President Trump's request, the most violent test yet of the 14-point memorandum of understanding that ended the U.S.-Iran war a week ago.
The strikes, concentrated in the Nabatieh district, came as Vice President JD Vance abandoned his planned Friday flight to Switzerland, Trump declared in an Axios interview that the deal amounted to Iran's "unconditional surrender" and former President Barack Obama said the United States may be "a little bit worse off" than before the war began in February. The president's signature foreign-policy achievement remains intact on paper but is fraying in practice, with the 60-day clock on a permanent agreement already running.
A truce that lasted hours
Trump called Israeli officials Friday and asked them to halt strikes on Lebanon, NBC News reported. Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said on X that Israel had stopped offensive operations at 11:30 a.m. local time. "Israel remains firmly committed to an immediate ceasefire," Leiter wrote.
Within hours the Israeli military said Hezbollah had "launched more than 50 projectiles toward IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon" overnight and that Israel had struck back. Hezbollah said it had "adhered to the ceasefire since Friday evening," and accused Israel of making "false claims to justify its violation of the ceasefire." A Lebanese soldier was killed between Kfar Rumman and Nabatieh. The earlier Friday exchange, before the ceasefire took hold, killed at least 47 people in Lebanon and four Israeli soldiers.
Switzerland slips again
Vance was to lead the U.S. delegation to Burgenstock on Friday. A White House spokesperson said Thursday night he would not travel, citing logistics that "have never been simple or predictable."
Special envoy Steve Witkoff and senior adviser Jared Kushner traveled to Switzerland in Vance's place, CBS News and Axios reported. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi remained in Tehran, meeting Pakistan's interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi. A source from a mediating government told Al Jazeera that Araghchi has told counterparts a Lebanon ceasefire could "make or break" the talks.
Obama weighs in
The former president, asked on NBC's "TODAY" about the deal his successor signed Wednesday at Versailles, said the country had little to show. "We've now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we're back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off," Obama said in an interview that aired Friday, ahead of the public opening of his presidential center in Chicago. Obama, who negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal Trump withdrew from in 2018, said the current memorandum does not address Iran's nuclear program the way his did.
Republicans pile on
The sharpest criticism this week has come from Trump's own party. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., wrote on X that Ronald "Reagan is rolling over in his grave" and called the memorandum "the worst foreign policy blunder in decades." Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters Tuesday: "Unless you were homeschooled by a day drinker, no one's confident that Iran's going to do anything."
Vance, in a New York Times interview with Ross Douthat published Thursday, took on Israeli critics of the framework by name, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. "You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have." Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., defended the deal to Fox News Digital. "They never can have nuclear weapons and we don't have troops on the ground and we made a lot of progress," Tuberville said.
Trump's case
Trump, in the Axios interview, said he negotiated the agreement to prevent a global depression and dismissed critics as "jealous, bad people or stupid." Asked what the war had taught him about the limits of his power, he said there were "no limits." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump had done a "very poor job of negotiating." Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital the deal "looks like unconditional surrender for the United States, not for Iran," and warned that the $300 billion regional reconstruction fund could be "spent on Hezbollah and other maligned proxies."
The counterpoint
The Strait of Hormuz, the test the White House cites most often, has continued to function. At least 25 vessels transited the strait Thursday, the highest single-day count since the war began, according to trade-intelligence firm Kpler. Five Iranian supertankers loaded with oil departed the region Friday with transponders switched on for the first time since the war, Kpler said. Vance told reporters the Iranians "are honoring their end of the commitment." U.S. Central Command said American forces had ceased blockade enforcement on Iranian coastal traffic.
Mediators from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt meet Sunday in Cairo to try to revive the Switzerland round. Separate U.S.-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon, which exclude Hezbollah, go ahead in Washington on June 23 and 25.