Iran…Trump….Evening…3/9/2026…Israel Will Keep Attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon

“There is no cease-fire in Lebanon,” Mr. Netanyahu insisted on Thursday.

Talks between Israel and Lebanon face enormous hurdles, in part because the government has no direct control over Hezbollah, which has resisted disarming. Even after saying Israel would join talks, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel would continue to hit Lebanon “with force and will not stop” until Hezbollah was disarmed. A senior Hezbollah official dismissed the possibility of talks between Israel and the Lebanese government saying that the government did not speak for the group.

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military warned civilians to evacuate parts of the country, including Beirut’s southern outskirts, where fleeing people packed roads going north. Hours later, Israeli military officials announced they were launching fresh strikes against Hezbollah.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said his country would not attend peace talks scheduled for this weekend in Pakistan if Lebanon was not brought under the umbrella of the cease-fire.

European leaders also urged Israel to stop its attacks, saying they threatened to derail the wider cease-fire. Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told reporters that “the severity with which Israel is waging war there could cause the peace process as a whole to fail,” and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Israel’s attacks on Lebanon “shouldn’t be happening” and that Lebanon should be included in the cease-fire.

The death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Wednesday rose to 303 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. That made it the deadliest day for Lebanon since the war began.

After a day of relative calm around the Persian Gulf, Kuwait’s army said late on Thursday that it was fending off drone attacks that had targeted a number of “vital facilities.” The army did not specify the source of the drones.

The status of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas must pass, is also posing major challenges to the cease-fire.

Iran has effectively closed the strait to the vast majority of ships since the start of the war. Saeed Khatibzadeh, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, maintained on Thursday that the strait was open to “everyone,” but he said that ships must coordinate with the Iranian military because of “technical restrictions,” including mines.

Hundreds of ships remained bottled up in the Gulf on Thursday, with only a handful passing.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• Oil prices: Markets cautiously rebounded on Thursday after some progress in negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in the afternoon, but oil prices rose in late trading as reports of fresh strikes came out of the Middle East. Brent crude, the international benchmark, settled at $95.92 a barrel, up more than 1 percent on Thursday.

• Diplomatic talks: Pakistan is scheduled to host Iranian and U.S. officials for talks in Islamabad on Saturday, according to the White House. Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead the U.S. delegation.

• Global economic outlook: The International Monetary Fund will downgrade its global growth outlook because of the war, its managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said on Thursday. Even the most optimistic outcome, she said, where the temporary truce holds, will lead to economic fallout because of “infrastructure damage, supply disruptions, losses of confidence, and other scarring effects.”

• Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed in Iran as of Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry on Monday said that more than 1,500 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 20 people had been killed as of Monday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.

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ISW…Iran Update Special Report, April 9, 2026

1.  Iran, the United States, and Israel have not exchanged fire since ISW-CTP’s last data cutoff on April 8. Gulf states continue to report drone attacks against them, however.
2. The US Government stated on April 8 that Iran submitted a “new” and “modified” proposal to the United States that will serve as the basis for the US-Iran talks. US President Donald Trump stated on April 7 that this proposal is a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” Unspecified mediators told the Wall Street Journal on April 8 that Iran has softened several of its demands, including its demands related to nuclear enrichment, the withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East, and war reparations.
3. Iran is taking several steps to try to exert control over maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which have the net effect of keeping oil prices high. Iran likely aims to use high oil prices to exert economic pressure on the United States and extract concessions from the United States during negotiations.
4. Iranian officials continue to insist that Lebanon is part of the ceasefire framework. Israeli officials have stated that Israel will not observe a ceasefire in Lebanon and will continue to strike Hezbollah, however. Hezbollah has resumed attacks on Israeli forces and positions in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israeli officials on April 8 to conduct direct negotiations with the Lebanese government “as soon as possible to discuss Hezbollah disarmament.