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As the United States and Iran prepare to hold talks in Pakistan aimed at ending the war, Israel is continuing to bomb Lebanon, where the death toll from Wednesday's massive wave of attacks has topped 300.
"It was 10 minutes of terror, a day that the Lebanese are calling Black Wednesday," says Lebanese Australian journalist Rania Abouzeid, speaking with Democracy Now! from Beirut. "It was hard to tell what was blowing up where, because those hundred or so attacks were all happening simultaneously."
Israel and the U.S. have claimed the Iran ceasefire deal struck this week does not include Lebanon, contradicting Iran's position. Abouzeid says direct talks between Israel and Lebanon are very "divisive" as many Lebanese fear being left out of a regional settlement, with Israel allowed to continue its attacks, displacement and occupation in the country.
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Without Trump on the midterms ballot, how will his party fare?
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On April 8, less than one day after the Trump administration agreed to a two-week ceasefire deal with Iran, Israel struck Lebanon in its heaviest and deadliest attack on the country since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began. At least 250 deaths have been reported. Israeli and U.S. authorities are insisting that the ceasefire proposal did not include Lebanon, where Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah. Iran and Pakistan, which brokered the deal, say the agreed-upon pause in hostilities applied to both countries. Since Israel's genocide of Gaza, "the silence of states and the continued flow of weapons has only emboldened Israel," says Beirut-based Human Rights Watch researcher Ramzi Kaiss. "The response from the international community has been limited by words of condemnation, but no effective action has been taken yet in order to stop these atrocities from happening."
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The United States and Iran have announced a two-week ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, under which Iran has agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Israel is also part of the agreement, but it has said it will continue its attacks and occupation inside Lebanon. The deal was reached less than two hours before President Trump's 8 p.m. ET deadline Tuesday for Iran to reopen the strait under threat of destroying every power plant and major bridge in Iran.
Although both parties have "strong incentives" to maintain a ceasefire, the deal is "extremely precarious," says Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, professor of international relations of the Middle East at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. "We're already seeing it being imperiled as we speak, with ongoing attacks in Lebanon, as well as reports of [Iranian] attacks in the Persian Gulf."
We are also joined by Naghmeh Sohrabi, professor of Middle East history at Brandeis University, who has been translating articles from Persian to English by writers inside Iran. Sohrabi speaks to the economic suffering — which had already led to protests in Iran earlier this year — that has been compounded by war. "People are losing their jobs. People are losing their homes. Food prices are going up," she says. "And the question is, even if the ceasefire holds, how they're going to pull this country out of the situation."
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The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has now entered its fourth week. The de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces is being felt worldwide, as shipments of oil, natural gas and fertilizer have been drastically curtailed. A fifth of the world's oil supply transits through the strait, and the price of oil is up by about 50% since the war began in late February.
On Saturday evening, President Trump threatened Iran on social media, saying he would "obliterate their various power plants, starting with the biggest one first," if the Strait of Hormuz was not fully reopened within 48 hours. He later extended his deadline by five days following Iranian threats to destroy essential infrastructure, including energy and water systems, across the Gulf. Iran has denied reports of direct or indirect talks with the U.S.
If Iran can keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and "hold Washington to ransom," it will have significant leverage, says Alfred McCoy, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "In a strategic analysis, Iran right now is in the dominant position."
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 Republicans who worked for U.S. Presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush have formed a Super PAC to support Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in November, the latest group launched by members of Trump's own party who will work to see him defeated.
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