U.S. and Iran agree to stop attacks, resume talks in Doha

U.S. and Iranian officials agreed Sunday to halt recent attacks and “stand down for now,” even as Israel kept striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and pushed the regional conflict onto a narrower but still volatile track. Follow-up technical talks were expected to continue in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, a sign that Washington and Tehran were trying to cool direct tensions after days of tit-for-tat strikes in the Gulf.

The sharpest example of the disconnect came in Majdal Zoun, where Israel said it destroyed underground Hezbollah infrastructure on Sunday. The target was a 200-meter tunnel that Israel said contained hundreds of weapons and launchers. Israel said the United States had been informed ahead of the operation, a detail that underscores how the U.S.-Iran pause did not extend to Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah.

The strike landed just two days after a U.S.-brokered security agreement between Lebanon and Israel on Friday, June 27, 2026. That deal called for a phased Israeli withdrawal from some parts of southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army, while still allowing Israeli forces to remain in an expanded security zone for the time being. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the arrangement, demanded that Israel leave Lebanon “unconditionally,” and said the group would continue armed resistance.

The fighting has already driven more than a million Lebanese from their homes, and Israel has said it will keep destroying what it calls terrorist infrastructure while defending northern Israeli communities. That makes the U.S.-Iran pause look less like a full de-escalation than a geographic narrowing of the fighting, with Lebanon still active even as direct attacks between Washington and Tehran ease for the moment.

The stakes remain high because the wider dispute reaches beyond Lebanon. The Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, sits at the center of the U.S.-Iran confrontation, and any renewed escalation could quickly threaten commercial traffic well outside the current strike zones.