Israel’s Lebanon Strikes Threaten Iran Peace Push

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Lebanon emerges as the key sticking point for the ceasefire as Israel continues to hammer Beirut. Plus, we look at the economic fallout of the war with Iran with the full impact yet to come.

Alex Frangos (0:45)

We went into the home spring selling season with mortgage rates finally dipping down below 6 percent. People were very optimistic. And as soon as the war started, rates went back up. People have gotten skittish and gotten scared.

Daniel Bach (0:58)

And how the creators of AI are trying to avert a public backlash. It's Wednesday, April 9th. I'm Daniel Bach for the Wall Street Journal, filling in for Luke Vargas. And here's the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. Global markets are selling off and oil prices have shot back up as shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains choked off amid the tentative ceasefire with Iran. Tehran is limiting the number of ships crossing the Strait to around a dozen a day and has said it will start charging tolls. But world leaders are pushing back. Here's UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper speaking to the BBC's Radio 4 Today program.

Yvette Cooper (1:42)

There may be territorial waters there, but there is also an international shipping route and an international transit route, which means that freedom of navigation principles apply and that countries cannot simply hijack those kinds of international transit routes and unilaterally apply tolls. They cannot do that as part of the laws of the sea and the United Nations arrangements that are in place.

Daniel Bach (2:06)

In a fresh warning, President Trump said in a social media post that US military personnel and assets will remain near Iran until the quote, real agreement reached is fully complied with, end quote, including the full reopening of the waterway. Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency said oil tanker traffic was halted after Israel hit Lebanon with fresh airstrikes yesterday, killing more than 250 people. Tehran has said it will only participate in planned peace negotiations in Pakistan this weekend if there's a pause in Israel's conflict with Hezbollah, something the White House has said isn't part of the ceasefire. At the same time, Israel says its ground operations in Lebanon will continue, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism for not laying out an endgame.

Anat Pellad (2:53)

Israel's just demonstrated over the last three years or so just really stunning tactical victories on the battlefield in terms of military operations, intelligence operations such as exploding beepers, targeted assassinations. But then when you look sort of at the strategy or long term beyond the military, so more political diplomacy, you don't see it translating into that.

Daniel Bach (3:15)

That's the Journal's Anat Pellad in Tel Aviv.

Anat Pellad (3:17)

So, I spoke to experts and also former Israeli officials in the government and the military, and they spoke about a weakness in Israel, not just now, but also historically, basically not being very good at planning for the long term. One example of this is really that in Israel, unlike the US or France or the UK, there's no tradition of publishing official government national security strategies where countries lay out their biggest threats, how they're going to deal with them. In Israel, it's just historically, it's focused on short, kinetic action. It's often been quite short wars, and now we're just seeing a real change, and it's just long wars that are dragging out. And it's not really clear what Israel's long game here is.

Daniel Bach (3:59)

Trump has also been lashing out at NATO allies, writing that quote, NATO wasn't there when we needed them, and they won't be there if we need them again. This after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met with Trump yesterday in Washington in a bid to soothe tensions. We're exclusively reporting that the White House is now considering a plan to punish some members of the alliance that the president thinks were unhelpful to the US and Israel during the war. Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.

Caroline Levitt (4:26)

I have a direct quote from the president of the United States on NATO, and I will share it with all of you. They were tested and they failed. And I would add it's quite sad that NATO turned their backs on the American people over the course of the last six weeks when it's the American people who have been defunding their defense.