A deadly strike in Beirut escalated into a high-stakes confrontation between Iran and US. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander brought US-Iran talks to a halt, while a disputed Trump statement over the Strait of Hormuz nearly triggered a fresh escalation.
What followed was a tense showdown that exposed just how fragile the diplomatic process had become. Iran’s Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator with the United States, Bagher Ghalibaf, made dramatic claim about the collapse of US-Iran diplomacy, saying talks were halted after an Israeli strike in southern Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah intelligence commander and his family.
Ghalibaf said the attack in Beirut’s southern Dahieh district became a turning point, prompting Tehran to freeze negotiations and prepare for a potentially wider regional confrontation. “After the killing, we stopped everything right there,” Ghalibaf said, according to Iranian media.
He said Iran had warned that it would respond to the Israeli strike that same night and threatened that any Israeli retaliation would trigger attacks across the region. Ghalibaf also offered a striking account of a dispute over the Strait of Hormuz and the terms of a US-Iran understanding.
US lifted its blockade that same night rather than 30 days after an agreement. US President Donald Trump then announced on social media that the blockade was being lifted, but allegedly added that Iran would open the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz in return.
Ghalibaf said he immediately rejected the wording, insisting that no such agreement had been reached. “I told the mediators that if the tweet was not deleted immediately, we would attack with the same intensity that I had announced,” he said.
Ghalibaf claimed Trump removed the disputed portion 58 minutes later, subsequently stating that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened on Saturday under the agreement. Strait has since become one of the central flashpoints in the confrontation between Washington and Tehran. Recent reporting indicates that efforts to revive the US-Iran interim agreement have stalled, with both sides accusing the other of failing to meet commitments linked to sanctions, blockades and maritime access.
The dispute over waterway escalated well beyond diplomacy. Tehran maintained that Hormuz will remain closed unless Washington meets its demands, while the Trump administration has insisted on freedom of navigation and continued to pressure Tehran to reopen the route.
Trump has also repeatedly issued increasingly forceful warnings over Iran’s actions around the waterway, while Tehran has insisted that control over Hormuz remains a matter of Iranian sovereignty.
Ghalibaf described the diplomatic process with Washington in stark terms. His comments show deep mistrust between two sides, where diplomacy repeatedly collided with military escalation. Recent attempts to revive an interim peace arrangement have made little progress, with disagreements over the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions, frozen Iranian assets and the terms of any broader settlement remaining unresolved.
Iran slams Trump’s Hormuz remarks, says no decision made on talks with US
