Democracy Dies with Dictatorship
NY Times
Apr 9, 2026
Iran War Live Updates: Israeli Strikes in Lebanon Threaten Shaky U.S.-Iran Cease-Fire
Israeli forces killed at least 182 people in strikes against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, on Wednesday. Top European diplomats called for Lebanon to be included in the cease-fire.
by Francesca RegaladoFarnaz Fassihi and Peter Eavis
Here’s the latest
The cease-fire between the United States and Iran entered its second day on Thursday despite confusion over the status of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that Iran has effectively blockaded, and over Lebanon, where Israel continued attacks against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.
On Wednesday, Iran said Lebanon was included in the cease-fire and accused the United States of not upholding its end of the deal. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said Washington had to choose between a cease-fire or continued war via Israel. Pakistan, which mediated the truce, said the deal covered Lebanon, a claim disputed by the White House.
Israel, which said that the cease-fire did not extend to Lebanon, attacked more than 100 targets there on Wednesday, and Lebanese officials said 180 people were killed and 900 were injured. Hezbollah said on Thursday that it had targeted Israel with a rocket salvo in retaliation, and that it planned to continue attacking until Israeli aggression against Lebanon ceased.
Late Wednesday, President Trump wrote on social media that the U.S. military ships, aircraft and personnel would stay near Iran until a “REAL AGREEMENT” is reached between the two countries. If not, he said, fighting would resume “bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has seen before.”
Peace talks hosted by Pakistan were scheduled to begin in Islamabad on Saturday morning, and Vice President JD Vance was expected to travel there with a group that includes Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law.
Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, said on social media that the Iranian delegation was expected to arrive in Islamabad on Thursday night. The post was later deleted.
The announcement of the two-week truce calmed global markets and sent the price of oil below $100. Brent crude, the international oil price standard, ended Wednesday at $94.75 per barrel, still about 30 percent higher than it was before the war. It had skyrocketed, going above $110 for a period, after the war began on Feb. 28 and Iran moved to block the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil and gas conduit.
Persian Gulf countries have been fending off missile and drone attacks almost daily during the war but there were no such reports on Thursday morning from the government ministries that have typically reported previous strikes in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Despite that apparent calm, the status of the strait was unclear.
Under the cease-fire deal, Iran said it would allow ships to pass through the strait as long as they coordinated with the Iranian military. But as of Thursday morning, no oil and gas tankers had made the crossing since the cease-fire took effect, according to data from the ship-tracking firm Kpler.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Lebanon: Israel’s strikes in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has mounted rocket attacks on Israel in solidarity with Iran, prompted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to threaten a military response against “aggressors in the region” if the attacks didn’t end immediately.
What’s next: Iran publicly released what it said was the 10-point framework for talks that Mr. Trump described as “a workable basis on which to negotiate” an end to the war. A White House official said the points did not match what Mr. Trump was referring to. Read more ›
Nuclear demand: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called on Iran to turn over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, saying that Mr. Trump could still order U.S. special forces to seize the material. Read more ›
Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,665 civilians, including 244 children, had been killed in Iran as of Monday. Lebanon’s health ministry on Monday said that more than 1,500 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 20 people had been killed as of Monday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
April 9, 2026, 6:04 a.m. ET14 minutes ago
Reporting from London
Britain’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, will call today for the complete reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and will oppose the idea of charging tolls on ships passing through the waterway. “No country can close these routes — it goes against the fundamental principles of the law of the sea,” Cooper will say in a speech, according to an excerpt released by her office. It adds: “The fundamental freedoms of the seas must not be unilaterally withdrawn or sold off to individual bidders.”
April 9, 2026, 5:46 a.m. ET32 minutes ago
Reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates said it is “seeking further clarification” on how the conditional cease-fire will prevent future Iranian attacks and will reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The statement from the country’s foreign ministry also said that Iran should be “held accountable and fully liable for damages and reparations” for its attacks on the U.A.E.
April 9, 2026, 5:33 a.m. ET45 minutes ago
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad and Ismaeel Naar
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran have spoken on the phone following the cease-fire announcement, the Saudi foreign ministry said, in the first official contact between the two countries since the war began. The two ministers discussed ways “to restore security and stability in the region,” a statement said. The countries are fierce regional rivals but have maintained cautious ties since re-establishing formal relations in a China-brokered deal in 2023.
April 9, 2026, 5:21 a.m. ET57 minutes ago
Steven Erlanger reports on NATO and European security.
Trump hits out at NATO after meeting with the alliance’s secretary general
President Trump has hit out at NATO after a tense meeting with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of the military alliance, at the White House on Wednesday.
Mr. Rutte had traveled to Washington to try to assuage Mr. Trump’s anger that NATO members had refused to participate in the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and help open up the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and gas shipping route. But Mr. Rutte conceded that it was not an easy meeting, calling it “very frank” and “very open,” despite clear disagreements.
Mr. Trump, who has also complained that the alliance has refused to hand over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, to the United States, was not satisfied.
“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” he wrote on social media after the meeting. “REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”
Mr. Trump did not say that he was pulling the United States out of NATO, however, which was a topic to be discussed during the meeting, the White House said.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Wednesday quoted Mr. Trump as saying that NATO was “tested and they failed.” NATO countries, she added, had “turned their backs on the American people” who help fund their defense.
Mr. Rutte said on CNN that he reminded Mr. Trump that many NATO allies, including Britain, had allowed American forces to use their bases, even if some tried to distinguish between American missions that were “defensive” or “offensive.”
“He is clearly disappointed with many NATO allies, and I can see his point,” Mr. Rutte said. “But at the same time, I was also able to point to the fact that the large majority of European nations has been helpful with basing, with logistics, with overflights, with making sure that they live up to the commitments.”
He added: “It’s, therefore, a nuanced picture.”
Pressed on whether Mr. Trump threatened to quit NATO, Mr. Rutte said only: “It was a very open discussion. He clearly told me what he thought of what happened over the last couple of weeks.”
Mr. Rutte has been called the “Trump whisperer” for his mix of public flattery and private advice to the president. But his approach has been criticized by some NATO states, especially for supporting Mr. Trump’s decision to launch a war with Iran that many members of the alliance view as unnecessary and illegal under international law.
April 9, 2026, 5:07 a.m. ET1 hour ago
Carlos Barragán
Reporting from Madrid
Spain will reopen its embassy in Iran, which has been closed since March 7, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Thursday. He said that the Spanish ambassador would return to Tehran to “join forces” in the peace process. Addressing Spanish lawmakers, Albares also condemned Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday, calling them “a shame to humanity’s conscience.”
April 9, 2026, 4:36 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
Lebanon’s health minister said the death toll from the Israeli strikes on Wednesday has climbed to 203 people, and more than 1,000 others have been wounded. It was the deadliest day in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group, since fighting escalated last month.
April 9, 2026, 4:34 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Paris
France has condemned Israel’s intensifying strikes on Lebanon and said the country should be included in the cease-fire between Iran and the United States. Jean-Noël Barrot, the foreign minister, told France Inter radio that the attacks were “all the more intolerable because they undermine” that truce. “Iran must stop terrorizing Israel through Hezbollah,” Barrot said. But he added that Lebanon should not be the “scapegoat” of an Israeli government that is “frustrated because a cease-fire has been reached between the United States and Iran.”
April 9, 2026, 4:33 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from London
Britain’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said Lebanon should be included in the Iran cease-fire and criticized Israel’s escalating attacks on Lebanon, saying that the barrage on Wednesday “was deeply damaging.” Ms. Cooper told Times Radio on Thursday that failing to include Lebanon in the truce “will destabilize the whole region,” after Israel and the United States said it was not part of the agreement.
She made the comments as Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain arrived in the United Arab Emirates as part of a visit to Gulf allies. On Wednesday, Starmer held talks with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah and discussed efforts to convene international partners to agree plans to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Downing Street said.
April 9, 2026, 4:18 a.m. ET2 hours ago
One major shipping company said that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz had not changed since yesterday. “Given the ongoing uncertainty and the lack of reliable security guarantees, it will only become clear in the coming days whether and how we will be able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” said Leon Schulz, a spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd, a German shipping group.
April 9, 2026, 4:10 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had killed the personal secretary to Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, in its attacks on parts of Beirut a day earlier. The personal secretary, Ali Yusuf Harshi, “played a central role in managing and securing” the office of Hezbollah’s leader, the military added.
April 9, 2026, 4:08 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Sanam Mahoozi
Across Iran on Thursday morning, supporters of the government gathered for mourning processions to commemorate the 40th day since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s longtime supreme leader, was killed in American and Israeli airstrikes. Photos posted on state media showed large crowds walking through the streets of the capital, Tehran, and several other cities. In Shia Islam, the 40th day after a death is an important milestone in the mourning process, when people gather to commemorate the person who died.
April 9, 2026, 4:05 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
The day after Israel unleashed a wave of devastating strikes in several parts of Beirut that killed at least 182 people, the signs of destruction are everywhere. Mangled cars, blown-out shopfronts, sidewalks caked in dust and piles of twisted rebar. Search and rescue teams are combing through the rubble from destroyed apartment buildings, and many people are believed to be under the rubble.
April 9, 2026, 3:57 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
Lebanon begins day of mourning after deadly barrage of Israeli strikes
Lebanon began a period of national mourning on Thursday, a day after Israeli forces unleashed an intense barrage of airstrikes across the country in the deadliest day of the war with Hezbollah.
At least 203 people were killed and 1,000 others wounded in the wave of Israeli strikes on Wednesday across the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and in southern and eastern Lebanon, according to the country’s health minister.
The bombardment — the Israeli authorities said that they had launched more than 100 airstrikes in the space of 10 minutes — was a sharp escalation in the fighting after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Lebanon would be excluded from the cease-fire with Iran.
The strikes pummeled several crowded areas of Beirut, sending plumes of black, acrid smoke billowing over the skyline and setting off a scramble to rescue those trapped under the rubble of apartment buildings.
On Wednesday evening, Haniya Faraj, 50, was outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center, searching for a relative who had been at a coffee shop near a strike in Mazraa, a neighborhood in central Beirut.
“Nine of my relatives were injured in that attack, my two uncles, their wives, my son,” she said. “I don’t know if there are more, my head is about to explode, I can’t reach all my family members.”
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.
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April 9, 2026, 3:06 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Persian Gulf countries have been fending off missile and drone attacks almost daily during the war, but there were no such reports on Thursday morning from the ministries that have typically announced them in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
April 9, 2026, 3:06 a.m. ET3 hours ago
The Iranian delegation will arrive in Pakistan tonight for talks with the United States, Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s ambassador in Pakistan, said on social media on Thursday. That post was later deleted from his account. The negotiations are scheduled to begin in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, on Saturday, according to Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
April 9, 2026, 12:01 a.m. ET6 hours ago
White House reporter
Just before midnight, President Trump wrote on social media that all U.S. military personnel and assets will stay near Iran until a “REAL AGREEMENT” is reached between the two countries.
“If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before,” he wrote.
Toward the end of last month, there were more than 50,000 American troops in the Middle East, roughly 10,000 more than usual.
April 9, 2026, 12:00 a.m. ET6 hours ago
Here’s what to know about the Strait of Hormuz under the cease-fire
Hundreds of tankers are waiting to return to the Strait of Hormuz so that the waterway can once again become a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas.
But the shaky cease-fire struck between the United States and Iran has not coaxed the tankers back — and even if it holds, other obstacles have to be overcome for shipping traffic to return to normal.
Iran has kept a stranglehold on the strait throughout the war by laying mines and attacking vessels. As part of the cease-fire, Iran’s foreign minister said, the country will allow “safe passage” for ships through the strait, but he added that the vessels would have to coordinate with Iran’s armed forces and that passages would be subject to “technical limitations.”
What is the situation in the strait now?
Only four vessels traveled through the strait on Wednesday, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, down from an average of nine a day over the previous five days. And shipping analysts said there were no signs of large-scale positioning or queuing to go through the strait.
The fragility of the cease-fire — Iran said on Wednesday that Israel’s attacks on targets in Lebanon had violated the agreement — was the main reason ships were holding back, shipping industry participants said.
“It’s too unstable for anyone to commit,” said Oscar Seikaly, chief executive of NSI Insurance Group, a maritime insurance brokerage.
What has to happen first for ships to go back?
First, shipping analysts say, there has to be confidence that the cease-fire will hold. And then there has to be a declaration from Iran that it will not attack vessels.
“Iran must clarify that the strait is open for safe passage. Otherwise, vessels should not be expected to sail through the way they were doing prior to the war,” said Noam Raydan, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
But Iran is also demanding that it oversee and coordinate passages through the strait. The government hasn’t clearly stated what vessel operators must do to gain permission to pass through. Some shipowners have made “toll” payments to Iran. And, according to Kpler, a shipping tracking firm, most of the crossings during the war have taken a route that goes close to Iran’s coast. This suggests that Iran requires taking this route.
Iran’s official broadcaster said on Wednesday that, because of anti-ship mines in the traffic zones, vessels must coordinate with the Iranian Navy and use designated routes to cross the waterway.
Do governments have to get involved?
The governments of India, Pakistan and Thailand have worked with Iran to ensure safe passage of vessels.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the leaders of seven European nations, Canada, the European Commission and the European Council said their governments “will contribute to ensuring freedom of navigation” in the strait.
President Trump suggested on Wednesday that the United States might jointly control the strait with Iran.
“The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post. “There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made.”
ABC News reported on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had told one of its reporters that the United States could operate shipping in the strait “as a joint venture” with Iran.
Will shipping return if Iran doesn’t give up full control?
Analysts say Iran can continue to act as a gatekeeper if the number of vessels going through the strait remains relatively small. But it would not be able to manage the more than 100 ships a day that passed through the strait before the war.
“Blanket passage arrangements are unlikely to be implementable by Iran, due to capacity constraints around vessel identification and ongoing requirements to guide vessels through the corridor,” Jack Kennedy, head of Middle East and North Africa country risk at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in an email.
Also, the threat of war will linger if Iran keeps throttling the strait. The Persian Gulf states do not want Iran to have such power over the waterway. Oman, the country on the other side of the strait, could invite ships to pass close to its coastline, but such a move might prompt Iran to attack the vessels.
Will shipping companies pay a toll to Iran?
Given that more than 100 large commercial ships have gone through the strait since the war began, some vessel operators are willing to negotiate with Iran and even pay millions of dollars for a passage. Shipping companies are losing money on vessels that are waiting to go through the strait, so they may be willing to pay large sums to get their ships out into the Indian Ocean and operating normally.
Still, the larger, more established shipping companies may decide that doing business with Iran is too much of a legal risk, particularly if the United States continues to impose sanctions on Iran.
“The issue of sanctions on Iran makes it a very complicated process, since it involves financial transactions with a sanctioned regime,” Ms. Raydan said.
How hard is it to get insurance?
When the fighting began, the cost of “war risk” insurance for ships and cargo going through the strait skyrocketed. A few shipping companies bought it, and it has been available at times during the war, Mr. Seikaly, the insurance executive, said. But the fragility of the cease-fire has driven down demand for insurance.
“It is not the right moment, and everyone knows that,” he said.