As Iran and U.S. appear near a deal, Israel ramps up war in Lebanon
As Iran and U.S. appear near a deal, Israel ramps up war in Lebanon
Tucker RealsWed, May 27, 2026 at 11:33 AM UTC
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What to know about the Iran war today:A senior official with Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard says renewed fighting with the U.S. seems unlikely but, just as President Trump has done, he stresses that his country is prepared for any outcome as negotiations continue.Lebanese officials say Israeli strikes killed more than 30 people on Tuesday alone as Israel intensifies its attacks on Iranian-backed Hezbollah, escalating hostilities on the other front in the wider Middle East war — where Iran says fighting must also end as part of any peace deal.President Trump will convene his Cabinet today at the White House to discuss the Iran war and other topics. Mr. Trump has said indirect talks with Iran are going "nicely," but he's faced criticism as the agreement taking shape may leave big issues, including Iran's nuclear program, on the table for further negotiation. Israeli military says it hit more than 150 Hezbollah "infrastructure sites and terrorists" in Lebanon in 24 hours
The Israel Defense Forces claimed in a brief statement Wednesday to have struck "more than 150 Hezbollah infrastructure sites and terrorists" in attacks on the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon over the last day.
The IDF said the strikes were in and around the southern Lebanese cities of Tyre and Nabatieh and in the Beqaa Valley area.
Lebanese officials say the attacks killed more than 30 people, with children among those pulled from the rubble of buildings in the cities. Lebanon's health ministry says that since Israel and Hezbollah started fighting at the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, more than 3,200 people have been killed and almost 10,000 wounded in the country.
Earlier Wednesday, IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee issued a warning via social media to residents of Nabatieh — a city home to roughly 25,000 people — to flee their homes and evacuate about a mile northward, across the Zahrani River, ahead of planned strikes.
"In light of the terrorist Hezbollah's violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defense Forces are forced to act against it with force," Adraee said, repeating language he has used in daily evacuation orders for Lebanese towns and villages.
Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on the area of the Rawdat al-Salihin Mosque and the nearby cemetery in the southern city of Nabatieh, Lebanon, May 26, 2026. / Credit: Abbas Fakih/AFP/Getty
"The IDF does not intend to harm you. For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Zahrani River," said the IDF spokesman. "We emphasize that anyone who is present near Hezbollah members, its facilities, and its combat means is putting their life in danger!"
Iranian official says highly enriched uranium "not on the agenda of the negotiations" with U.S.
Speaking on the sidelines of a security forum in Russia's capital, the Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Bagheri Kani, said indirect negotiations with Washington continued, but he renewed the regime's insistence that the issue of its enriched uranium stockpile wasn't yet on the agenda.
"This issue is not on the agenda of the negotiations," he said when asked about the roughly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium that international monitors believe is still buried under one of Iran's badly damaged nuclear facilities, according to Russian news agency TASS.
President Trump had previously claimed Iran was ready to hand what he refers to as its "nuclear dust" over to the U.S., but on Monday he said the regime could dispose of its highly-enriched uranium inside the country, or "at another acceptable location."
A senior Trump administration official said over the weekend that Iran had agreed in principle to dispose of its highly-enriched uranium during the negotiations but that officials were still working through details of a mechanism for its disposal.
Iran Revolutionary Guard official says possibility of renewed war with U.S. is low
An official with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that a renewal of the war with the United States was unlikely, but he warned that Iran stood ready to defend itself against any new attack.
"The possibility of war is low because of the enemy's weakness; the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines," Mohammad Akbarzadeh, the deputy political chief of the IRGC's naval force, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is linked with the guard.
"Do not doubt that we will turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors," he said, referring to locations at either end of Iran's lengthy southern coast in the Persian Gulf.
Trump to convene Cabinet as he looks to seal a deal that some backers worry will embolden Iran
President Trump will meet with his Cabinet on Wednesday at a precarious moment for talks aimed at ending the war with Iran, just days after insisting his administration and Tehran had "largely negotiated" a settlement but with the negotiations still in a state of flux.
As he prepares to huddle with his top aides, Mr. Trump is projecting confidence that he's closing in on a deal that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him a credible argument that Iran's nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that's been politically unpopular for Republicans.
But as things stand, he also risks finding closure to his war of choice comes with an unsatisfactory ending.
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The emerging deal puts off many critical issues to be resolved later and has already exposed the president to fierce criticism — even from some of his own supporters — that Iran's hardline leaders will emerge from the conflict battered but emboldened. It all comes to a head just as the midterm elections to determine control of Congress come into focus and as Republicans worry that rising costs and fuel prices are darkening the American electorate's mood.
Talks were further complicated after U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called "defensive" strikes on missile launch sites and mine-laying boats in southern Iran on Monday. The U.S. said it acted with "restraint" in light of the weekslong ceasefire, while Iran decried the action as a sign of "bad faith and unreliability."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that talks with Iran on reopening the strait and extending the ceasefire — a period that the administration says could be used to hash out the finer details of a nuclear agreement — will take several more days. "He's either going to make a good deal or no deal," Rubio told reporters.
India says Iran released 10 sailors detained since July
Ten Indian sailors, detained in Iran in July on an oil tanker, have been released after "sustained diplomatic engagement," India's shipping authorities said late Tuesday.
The sailors on the MV Harbour Phoenix were "detained, arrested and imprisoned in Iran following the vessel's interception near Jask Port in July 2025," India's Directorate General of Shipping said in a statement.
"The seafarers have now been released and reunited safely," the shipping authority said. "…Necessary arrangements are being coordinated for the earliest return of the crew members to India."
New Delhi and Tehran have long-standing diplomatic and energy ties, but India also balances that with close links to the United States and Israel.
Iranian forces regularly announce the interception of ships it says are illegally transporting fuel in the Gulf.
India has pursued a policy of quiet diplomacy and minimal public comment during negotiations for the release of the sailors. It did not give further details on the reason for their arrest or about the vessel, which ship tracking sites list as a Palau-flagged oil products tanker.
India has one of the world's largest merchant navy workforces, with thousands of Indian sailors operating in Gulf shipping lanes.
Lebanon says 31 killed, 40 wounded in Israeli strikes
Lebanon said Israeli strikes on the country's south killed 31 people on Tuesday, as Israel said it was intensifying attacks despite a fragile truce in its war with the militant group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it faced Israeli troops entering the southern town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, as the Israeli military said it was expanding its ground operations.
In a statement, the Lebanese health ministry said 31 people, including at least four children and three women, were killed in attacks and 40 wounded.
Fourteen were killed in Burj al-Shamali near Tyre, five in Kawthariyat al-Riz, four in Habbush, six in Maarakeh and two in Salaa, the health ministry said.
Rescue workers remove a body from the rubble of a residential building hit the previous day by an Israeli strike near the southern town of Burj al-Shamali, on the outskirts of Tyre, May 27, 2026. / Credit: Kawnat HAJU/AFP/Getty
An Agence France-Presse correspondent in the southern city of Nabatieh reported airstrikes following an unprecedented warning on the city and saw plumes of smoke rising from various locations within it.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said one of the strikes hit the vicinity of a public hospital, causing "significant damage to the hospital's departments."
The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for at least 50 southern and eastern towns and villages on Tuesday, including Nabatieh.
An Israeli military official told AFP that troops had begun operating beyond the Israel-announced "Yellow Line" in south Lebanon, which runs six miles deep inside Lebanese territory.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
