US-Iran Ceasefire Falters Hours After Deal As Both Sides Trade Breach Claims

US-Iran truce shows early cracks as attacks persist, Strait of Hormuz remains shut and both sides threaten renewed fighting.

A two-week Pakistan-brokered ceasefire aimed at ending a 40-day conflict between the United States and Iran was off to a precarious start on Wednesday, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms just hours after it began.

Also, Iranian authorities were said to be treating the Strait of Hormuz as still closed, in response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon where 254 persons were killed Wednesday, despite the ceasefire, Iranian state media reports said.

The conditional ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran had a provision for the temporary reopening of the crucial maritime channel. Effectively, the strait has remained closed as traffic had not immediately increased in the hours after the ceasefire announcement.

Tehran said on Wednesday that it would offer safe passage in coordination with its armed forces, though its coast guard said any ship trying to transit without permission would be “targeted and destroyed”.

Israel has launched huge strikes across Lebanon today, killing over 250 people, with Trump later clarifying that Lebanon wasn’t included in the ceasefire deal. Iran threatened to retaliate if the strikes were not “immediately halted.”

Besides, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps threatened a military response against “aggressors in the region” if there was not an immediate halt to attacks in Lebanon, where Israel has targeted the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group. And other Persian Gulf nations reported dozens of Iranian missile and drone attacks since the cease-fire was announced.

That violence, coupled with confusion over the Strait of Hormuz — which President Trump had insisted must be reopened as a condition of the cease-fire — and disagreements about the 10-point framework for talks released by Iran underscored the fragility of a truce that both sides have sought to frame as a victory.

Israel, which said the truce did not extend to Lebanon, on Wednesday carried out one of its largest strikes against Hezbollah since that front opened up following the militant group’s rocket attacks on Israel in solidarity with Iran in March. Pakistan said the truce was supposed to include Lebanon.

Further highlighting the fragility of the truce, Persian Gulf countries continued to report dozens of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Wednesday. And Iran’s state media reported that an oil refinery on Lavan, an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf, was struck by unspecified “enemies.”

Meanwhile, top U.S. General, Dan Caine, said on Wednesday U.S. troops stood ready to resume fighting if Tehran failed to strike a negotiated settlement as the Trump administration sought to portray the war as a decisive victory against Iran.

The remarks came a day after Trump came from the brink of a threatened civilisation-ending assault on Iran on Tuesday night, two hours before a deadline he had set for Tehran to open the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. U.S. and Iranian officials are set to meet in Pakistan for talks on Friday.

“We hope that Iran chooses a lasting peace,” Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference. “A ceasefire is a pause and the joint force remains ready, if ordered or called upon, to resume combat operations — with the same speed and precision as we’ve demonstrated over the last 38 days,” Reuters reported.

Despite the ceasefire, Saudi Arabia’s crucial East-West oil pipeline, currently its only outlet for crude exports, was hit in an Iranian attack. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted nine drones over a few hours on Wednesday while Kuwait said a number of facilities were attacked by Iranian drones.

Tehran, which demonstrated its ability to cut off Gulf energy supplies through its grip on the strait, has claimed victory and says it is entering the talks without trust in U.S. negotiators.

“The enemy, in its unjust, illegal and criminal war against the Iranian nation, has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said in a statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, however, portrayed Iran as militarily defeated and without any option but to strike a deal. Hegseth and Caine spoke about the destruction of Iran’s defense industry, its navy and its missile capabilities.

Hegseth said the U.S. military was “hanging around” in the Middle East to ensure Iran complies with the two-week ceasefire and to monitor the country’s enriched uranium stockpile, adding that the United States would take it “if we have to.”

“President Trump had the power to cripple Iran’s entire economy in minutes, but he chose mercy,” Hegseth told reporters.

Caine detailed the tactical gains the U.S. military had achieved, including destroying about 80 per cent of Iran’s air defense systems, attacking 90 per cent of its weapons factories and sinking approximately 90 per cent of its regular naval fleet.

The U.S. has more than 50,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East and has been increasing that number. U.S. officials told Reuters that the movement of thousands of Marines to the region, from San Diego, was continuing for now.

During the course of the 38-day war, 13 U.S. troops were killed while 372 service members were injured — though the vast majority of them had already returned to service.