Trump says Iran war "close to over" amid push for new peace talks

Two Israeli strikes hit vehicles south of Beirut on Wednesday, state media reported, while Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel, hours after Lebanon and Israel held historic direct negotiations.

Israel is continuing its strikes on southern Lebanon in its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah but had not targeted the Lebanese capital since a series of attacks across the country on April 8 that killed more than 350 people.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported two separate Israeli strikes on two vehicles, one in the seafront town of Saadiyat and another on a coastal highway in neighboring Jiyeh, around 12 miles south of Beirut and outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

NNA also reported several other strikes across southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military said it had detected "approximately 30 launches" by Hezbollah militants toward Israel since the early hours of Wednesday, a spokesman told AFP.

Hezbollah said it launched rockets at 10 northern Israeli areas.

The attacks come a day after Lebanon and Israel's ambassadors to the United States held their first direct talks in decades in Washington and agreed to hold further direct negotiations, with the Lebanese envoy calling for a ceasefire. Hezbollah strongly rejected the talks.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than a million since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities.

Among a series of posts on his Truth Social platform overnight, President Trump continued disparaging Pope Leo XIV and NATO.

In one post, he said: "Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable."

The pontiff has panned the administration's actions in Iran, among other things, and the president has taken exception.

The administration says ending Tehran's nuclear program is one of its key goals in the war with Iran. Rights groups say the Iranian regime killed tens of thousands of people who took to the streets to demonstrate against the Iranian regime earlier this year.

In another post, the president repeated his frequent characterization of the actions of other NATO nations during the war, saying, "NATO wasn't there for us, and they won't be there for us in the future!"

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey this week during a diplomatic push to secure a new round of talks between the U.S. and Iran, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The trip comes days after Islamabad hosted marathon negotiations last weekend that ended without a formal agreement.

Sharif is attempting to facilitate a second round before a fragile ceasefire expires early next week. The ministry said Sharif's visits will start Wednesday and conclude on Saturday.

President Trump told Fox News the war "is very close to over," and he said to the New York Post that a second round of talks with Iran "could be happening over next two days," again in Islamabad.

Late Tuesday night, ABC News Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl said on social media that Mr. Trump "told me today he isn't thinking about extending the ceasefire. He doesn't think it will be necessary."

Karl said the president told him, "I think you're going to be watching an amazing two days ahead. I really do."

CBS/AP

In a statement Tuesday night, U.S. Central Command said a blockade of Iranian ports "has been fully implemented as U.S. forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East."

"An estimated 90% of Iran's economy is fueled by international trade by sea," Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in the statement. "In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea."

A U.S. destroyer interdicted two oil tankers on Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News.

The official said the two ships were part of the six merchant vessels U.S. forces told to turn back to an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman in the initial 24 hours of the blockade. Reuters was first to report on the interdiction.

In that same timeframe, more than 20 other ships not from Iranian ports transited safely through the strait, the U.S. official said.