Beirut bombed, Iran attacked, UAE, Saudi hit as West Asia peace remains most fragile

Within hours of the announcement of a two-week ceasefire agreed to by the United States and Iran on Wednesday morning, the office of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that it would not stop military action in Lebanon. Pakistan’s prime minister Shahbaz Sharif was categorical in stating that war would stop in the entire region including in Lebanon. Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi was also quoted as saying that Iran would not accept a ‘partial peace’ and that Israeli attacks must cease in Lebanon.

Four hours after the ceasefire announcement, Netanyahu's office issues a statement in English, welcoming the pause on Iran but explicitly stating "the two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon. Netanyahu’s defence minister claimed 10 per cent of Lebanon as part of Israel and his finance minister had said Israel's border should be the Litani river in Lebanon. The statement issued only in English, and not in Hebrew, suggested that it was aimed at Washington, or more specifically Trump and the international press, not Israelis.

There were palpable anger and frustration in Israel, reported various media outlets, because the US had apparently not consulted Tel Aviv. There was no conversation between Trump and Netanyahu and Israeli politicians were livid that Israel was not at the table and was not part of the negotiation. Netanyahu himself went silent, which revived speculation whether he is actually alive or in charge. Israeli hard liners gave vent to their frustration at the ‘strategic disaster’ and blamed Netanyahu for not achieving any of the goals he had set before initiating the war.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid posted, “There has never been such a political disaster in all of our history. Israel wasn't even at the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security. The military carried out everything that was asked of it, the public demonstrated amazing resilience, but Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and didn't meet a single one of the goals that he himself set. It will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu wrought due to arrogance, negligence, and a lack of strategic planning”.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) bombed 100 locations in Lebanon in a span of 10 minutes in the afternoon, reported war correspondent Steve Sweeney from Beirut. “Beirut is under attack. Bombs going off all around us, multiple strikes across many parts of the city. Can’t post footage now for obvious reasons but people are desperately trying to find a place of safety. 100 strikes in 10 minutes across Lebanon. This is a clear message that there is no ceasefire on Israel’s part and that it is escalating its attacks on civilian areas,” posted Sweeney and within minutes IDF confirmed it had carried out the attacks.

Israeli sources claimed senior Trump administration officials told Israel that the US would insist on the removal of Iran's nuclear material, no uranium enrichment, and elimination of the ballistic missiles during the upcoming negotiations, reported Channel 12 in Israel. These positions are however the opposite of what Iran's Supreme National Security Council claimed the US had agreed to.

Hours before the ceasefire was announced, Israel carried out airstrikes against the "China-Iran Railway", which opened on 3 June 2025, with funding from China. It was designed to allow Iranian oil to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca, traveling directly to China—thereby saving 20 days in transit time.

Meanwhile, refineries in Iran on the islands of Siri and Lavan came under attack, allegedly by the UAE. Historian and analyst Babak Taghvaee claimed, “Angry and frustrated over the ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran’s Islamic regime and upset over the end of Israeli airstrikes in Iran, the UAE conducted a massive false-flag operation, targeting Iran’s oil facilities across the Persian Gulf region today, hoping the IRGC Aerospace Force would retaliate by targeting Israel. However, it appears to have backfired. The IRGC instead went straight after the Emiratis and targeted their oil facilities in Fujairah.” 

While it was not clear who launched the attack on the East-West pipeline in Saudi Arabia, The Financial Times reported during the day that “Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline carrying 7 million barrels per day of crude oil from the Gulf to the Red Sea has been attacked”. The pipeline was reportedly struck by a drone and the damage is being assessed. Iran had earlier alleged that Israel and the US had carried out false flag operations in Saudi Arabia to fix the blame on Iran. Iranian response was still awaited.

As hostilities continued, IRGC ordered the strait of Hormuz closed to ships of ‘enemy’ nations. A new twist was added by the ABC Washington chief correspondent Jonathan Karl who posted that he had spoken to President Trump and asked if he had agreed to Iran collecting fees from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The President, he claimed, had said that it would be done jointly by the US and Iran. This added to the doubts on how short-lived the ceasefire will be.

Experts believe it is possible that President Trump will utilise the ceasefire to plan renewed attacks. The former director of the US counterterrorism centre, Joe Kent, who resigned on 17 March protesting against Trump’s policies on Iran, also warned that Israel, which has a poor track record of honouring commitments, would try to sabotage peace.

“Like all of our previous interventions in the Middle East, we are worse off after the war (not that this is over) than we were before. Wars in the Middle East are a series of lose-lose scenarios for us, the sooner we learn that, the better off we’ll be. To ensure the ceasefire is successful we must first ensure that we restrain the Israelis,” he posted.