Iran says it's done with latest round of strikes, but warns Israel to stop attacking Lebanon

Israel-Iran ceasefire well-tried by missile launches

Iran's war machine proclaimed on mon that its first wave ​of attacks on Israel since a ceasefire ⁠in April was ⁠now over, although ‌it threatened to resume the strikes if Israel continued its attacks on Lebanon.

There was no immediate response from Israel, which had launched attacks ⁠on Iran in retaliation after Tehran fired missiles late on Sunday, the first direct strikes between ‌the foes since the ceasefire.

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump demanded that Israel and Iran stop their exchanges, which threatened to derail U.S.-led efforts to broker a ⁠deal to end the war.

Before the Iranian announcement, Israel hit a petrochemical plant in southwestern Iran that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli facility in the city of Haifa.

Israeli authorities said three waves of Iranian missiles targeted the country, and urged the public to seek shelter. Explosions could be heard in central Israel as Israeli air defences sought to intercept the incoming Iranian fire.

Israel said it struck targets at the ‌Mahshahr petrochemical complex that were used to produce and export raw materials for Iran's missile program. A provincial official told Iranian media parts of the plant were damaged.

Iranian media reported the sound of explosions in Tehran on Monday, and the semi-official Mehr news agency said air defences had shot down a drone over the capital. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

"Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting,'" Trump said in a post on Truth ​Social, a day after he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks to avoid undermining talks to end the more than 100-day-old conflict.

The war was launched on Feb. 28 when Israel and the United States killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian leaders.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that Tehran was exchanging messages with Washington ‌in an atmosphere of "extreme suspicion." Israel's actions in Lebanon, whether carried out with U.S. Knowledge and consent or not, were aimed at sabotaging diplomacy, he added.

Baghaei said the U.S. "bears direct responsibility" for any actions Israel takes "violating regional peace and security against Iran."

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis pledged in a ⁠statement to stop Israel's maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and said they were behind the first missile attack on Israel since an April 8 ceasefire that paused all-out warfare.

Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including rebuking Netanyahu in a phone call last week.

However, Israel launched ​strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in the Beirut area on Sunday for the first time since the U.S. Announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.

Iran fired salvos of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation, but Trump is still insisting that an agreement to end the wider war remained within reach.

Despite an April ceasefire, there have been sporadic flare-ups of fighting in the Gulf. Tehran has blocked most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried one-fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.

Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Trump has said any deal to end the war must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Tehran's demands include the lifting of U.S. And international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets ⁠and recognition of its sway over the strait.

Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people and driven hundreds of thousands more from ⁠their homes, saying ⁠it should be treated separately from any Iran ceasefire.

Hezbollah, which kept out of ​truce talks, has also continued its attacks and says it will not give up its weapons unless Israel halts its attacks and withdraws from Lebanon.

Tehran has long said any peace deal with the U.S. Would depend ​on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in ⁠March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who fired across the border in solidarity with Tehran.

The U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, said on Monday that Lebanese-Israeli negotiations were scheduled to resume in Washington.

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