Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu confirms Israel has agreed to 10-day ceasefire with Lebanon

Israeli prime minister says key demand is that Hezbollah must be dismantled; Lebanon’s PM Nawaf Salam welcomes ceasefire announced by Donald Trump Trump announces 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon after ‘excellent conversations’ Iran has stopped all petrochemical exports to prioritise domestic supply and prevent shortages of raw materials, Reuters reported. The state-owned National Petrochemical Company ordered firms to suspend exports until further notice. Continue reading…

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Israeli prime minister says key demand is that Hezbollah must be dismantled; Lebanon’s PM Nawaf Salam welcomes ceasefire announced by Donald Trump Trump announces 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon after ‘excellent conversations’ Iran has stopped all petrochemical exports to prioritise domestic supply and prevent shortages of raw materials, Reuters reported. The state-owned National Petrochemical Company ordered firms to suspend exports until further notice. Continue reading…

President Trump said he doesn’t think meeting with Pope Leo XIV is “necessary,” as the president has criticized him for being “weak on crime,” among other things.

The pope has been critical of the war in Iran. On Monday, Mr. Trump told CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell that the pope is “wrong on the issues.”

On Thursday, the president told reporters on the White House South Lawn he has a “right to disagree with the pope.”

“If the pope looked at the 42,000 people that were killed over the last two or three months, as a protester, with no weapons, no nothing,” he said. “I mean, you take a look at that, so I can disagree with the pope. I have a right to disagree. I have a right to disagree with the pope.”

The president added, “The pope can say what he wants. And I want him to say what he wants. But I can disagree. I think that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If they do, the whole world would be in jeopardy, the Middle East would blow up and the whole world would be in jeopardy.”

“This is the real world, it’s a nasty world,” he said. “But as far as the pope and saying what he wants, he can do that.”

President Trump said the meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will take place in a “week or two,” possibly at the White House.

The president called them the first “meaningful talks” between the two countries since 1983.

The president said he’ll also visit Lebanon “at the right time.”

Speaking to reporters on the White House South Lawn, President Trump said he’s “not sure” the U.S. will need to extend the ceasefire with Iran. Without an extension, the ceasefire would expire April 22.

But if the U.S. and Iran can’t reach a deal before then, he suggested the war would continue.

“I would say if there’s no deal, fighting resumes,” he said.

The ceasefire in Lebanon aims to grow momentum that was generated in talks on Tuesday between Israeli and Lebanese officials, an Israeli official told CBS News. Those talks were held in Washington, D.C., and led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Israel has agreed it will only respond militarily during the ceasefire to “imminent threats from Hezbollah,” the official said, who described it as in keeping with a November 2024 Biden-era deal. Hezbollah is a Lebanese militia backed by Iran as well as a political force within Lebanon, and Tehran has historically used it to project power in the region.

The truce will test whether the Lebanese state military — t