White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has struggled to explain the tenuous ceasefire deal Donald Trump agreed to amid reports that parts of the agreement had already been breached.
Less than a day after both sides decided to pause the war for two weeks in order to begin negotiations, uncertainty emerged over the status of the economically vital Strait of Hormuz and Israel’s ongoing attacks against Lebanon, home of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Despite Trump boasting of a new “golden age” now that the Strait was open, Iranian state media said on Wednesday that it had once again shut down the critical oil chokepoint in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
The announcement was contentious because Trump had threatened to obliterate a “whole civilization” unless Iran ended the standoff in the Strait, where 20 percent of the world’s oil usually flows.
However, when asked about it during her Wednesday briefing, Leavitt gave a confusing explanation, describing the reports as “completely unacceptable” while insisting they weren’t true, but later adding that things were being monitored “minute by minute.”
“This is a case of what they’re saying publicly is different privately,” she said.
“We have seen an uptick of traffic in the Strait today, and I will reiterate the President’s expectation and demand: that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately, quickly, and safely.”
Confusion also emerged when Iran and Pakistan - which helped the U.S broker the two week pause - insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal. But Israel insisted it was not and continued to bomb the country.
Leavitt agreed with Israel when asked about this on Wednesday, telling reporters: “Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire.”
The comments came as the Trump administration sought to put a positive spin on a deeply unpopular conflict that has so far already resulted in 13 dead U.S. service officers, soaring gas prices, and political pain for the GOP ahead of this year’s midterms.
But things took a turn on Wednesday when Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, accused the U.S. of violating three parts of Iran’s 10-point proposal.
These violations, he said, were Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon, the entry of a drone into Iranian airspace, and the denial of the Islamic Republic’s right to enrich uranium.
But this in itself contradicts the administration, which has repeatedly said that it would not allow Iran to enrich uranium as it is central to making a nuclear bomb.
“This is on the top of the priority list for the president and his negotiating team as they head into these next round of discussions,” Leavitt said, adding that Iran had agreed to give up its uranium.
“As I said in my opener, that is a red line that the president is not going to back away from, and he’s committed to ensuring that takes place.”
Vice President JD Vance, who will now take a key role in negotiations, was also asked about Ghalibaf’s comments on Wednesday.
“I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English, because there are things that he said that, frankly, didn’t make sense in some of the context of negotiations that we’ve had,” he said.
The confusion underpins the tenuous nature of the ceasefire, even as the administration touted the brief pause as an undeniable victory for the President.
“A big day for World Peace!”Trump wrote on Truth Social following the two-week cease-fire announcement. “Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else!”
But others—MAGA firebrand Laura Loomer and Trump’s Fox News ally Mark Levin—disagreed, noting that the war had given Iran leverage over the U.S. that it had never used before.
In addition, many of America’s own demands had not been met, from the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program to an end to Iran’s proxy support.
“It was always a concern that Iran could mine the Strait, or close the Strait, but they’ve never actually really done it until now,” Brett McGurk, a former National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East, told CNN.
“And now they’re saying ‘yes, we control it and we will meter it depending on what we, Iran, decide. That is a bad outcome, not just for the Middle East but for the world.”
Both sides agreed to the ceasefire hours before Trump’s 8 pm deadline on Tuesday, which came after an apocalyptic post that shocked the world.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” the 79-year-old Commander in Chief declared on Truth Social.
But Leavitt was also cornered about this on Wednesday, when a reporter asked her how the president could claim America has “the moral high ground if he’s threatening to destroy civilizations.”
“The president absolutely has the moral high ground over the Iranian terrorist regime, and for you to even suggest otherwise is frankly insulting,” she clapped back.
