Trump: Israeli attack on Beirut should not have happened, but deal is close

US President Donald Trump criticized an Israeli attack on Lebanon that could complicate efforts to finalize a framework agreement between the United States and Iran today to end their war, but said a deal was still close.

Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf earlier said that the Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which Israel said was aimed at Iranian-backed militants from the Hezbollah organization, shows that the US lacks the will or ability to fulfill its obligations.

"This morning's attack on Beirut should not have happened, especially on a special day when we are so close to a peace deal with Iran," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"We are very close to an agreement that will bring peace to the region, including Lebanon, and all parties should cease their actions."

The US-Israeli war against Iran, launched on February 28, has fueled clashes between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israel has said it is not a party to the planned US-Iran agreement.

"If you do not have the will and ability to fulfill your obligations, it is not possible to talk about continuing this process," Ghalibaf wrote on the X network.

Mohammad Jafar Asadi, deputy commander of Iran's supreme joint military command, said, according to state media, that Israeli "crimes" in the southern suburbs of Beirut will not go unanswered.

"A strong response is coming," the chairman of Iran's parliamentary committee for national security later said.

Trump and Pakistan, which is mediating the talks, said Saturday they expect the deal to be signed today, the US president's 80th birthday. An official involved in the talks said today that the mediators were optimistic and that the agreement was "one step away from being finalized." A Kremlin aide said Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call today that a deal was close.

However, Tehran expressed doubts about the timeline for reaching an agreement even before the attack on Beirut.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that under the draft agreement, the US would agree to release $25 billion in frozen Iranian assets, while Tehran would commit not to produce or acquire nuclear weapons.

Qatari negotiators arrived in Tehran this morning as part of efforts to finalize the agreement, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The Israeli military said today that Hezbollah fired three missiles at communities in northern Israel, in what it said was a violation of a ceasefire agreement. Israel then struck what it said were Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh neighborhood of Beirut, in an attack that killed three people, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense.

Fox News quoted an unnamed diplomat involved in the negotiations as saying that the Israeli attacks were complicating efforts to finalize a deal between the US and Iran, and described them as an attempt to thwart those efforts.