Trump threatens to resume Iran war after throwing ceasefire into chaos

The chaos surrounding a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran deepened on Wednesday after the Trump administration appeared to undercut key terms of the deal and threatened to resume the war unless Tehran complied with what President Donald Trump claimed was the "real" agreement.

The two sides had on Tuesday reached a last-gasp deal to a two-week pause in the fighting, which mediator Pakistan said applies across the region.

But Israel has refused to end its bombardment of Lebanon, killing at least 203 people in its heaviest bombing of the country since the war broke out again on 2 March and risking the collapse of the truce.

"The Iran-US ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on social media.

He shared Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's statement declaring the ceasefire, highlighting his mention of Lebanon.

But Trump's vice president denied agreeing to a truce with Hezbollah and claimed there had been a "misunderstanding" between the two sides.

"I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't," JD Vance told reporters.

Announcing the deal on Tuesday night, Trump said peace talks would be based on a 10-point plan submitted by Iranian negotiators. Iran said its proposal included respecting its right to enrich uranium and the lifting of US sanctions.

In a series of Truth Social posts yesterday, Trump blasted Iran's claims as "totally fake", ruled out discussing the future of Iran's nuclear programme, and vowed to launch "bigger, and better, and stronger" military strikes if Tehran does not abide by the "real agreement".

"There is only one group of meaningful "points" that are acceptable to the United States, and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these negotiations. These are the points that are the basis on which we agreed to a ceasefire," he wrote. 

The administration has not provided details about the proposal Trump is claiming to have agreed to.

Iran insists that the US agreed to a regional ceasefire and has demanded that Israel end its attacks in Lebanon.

"You cannot ask for a ceasefire and then accept terms and conditions, accept all the areas that a ceasefire is applied to, and name Lebanon, and then your ally [Israel] just starts a massacre," deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the BBC on Thursday morning.

The dispute over the ceasefire comes ahead of the first round of peace talks, which are expected to take place between Iranian and US officials in Islamabad on Friday.

European leaders have called for the ceasefire to be applied in Lebanon, which has emerged as the new flashpoint of the six-week regional war.

News of the ceasefire was met with outcry in Israel, which lashed out with intense bombing across Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and the south.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun decried Israel's "massacre", which overwhelmed hospitals with hundreds of casualties and reduced areas to rubble.

At least 203 people were killed, and almost 1,000 others were injured in the bombardment, according to Lebanon's civil defence.