Trump and NATO, Shaky Ceasefire In Middle East, Lebanon's Day Of Mourning

0:02The head of NATO visited Washington, insisting the alliance is helping the United States. President Trump did not consult the allies before launching a war on Iran, then talked of leaving the alliance when some refused to help.

0:13David Greene:I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fadal, and this is Up First from NPR News. The ceasefire in the war with Iran has yet to cease all fire. Gulf states are still intercepting Iranian attacks. Iran has not fully opened the Strait of Hormuz. And that's over. Continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon. The country declared a national day of mourning after Israeli strikes killed more than 250 people in a single day. Hezbollah held its fire yesterday but shot rockets into northern Israel this morning. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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1:22David Greene:This message comes from WTTW. Join Jeffrey Baer as he tells the story of how railroads shaped Chicago. Riding the Rails with Jeffrey Baer premieres April 13th at 7 p.m. on WTTW. This message comes from Bombas. Your feet hit the ground an average of 2 ,000 times in a mile. Bombas sports socks are designed to support you every step. Sprint to Bombas.com slash NPR and use code NPR for 20 % off your first purchase. President Trump met with the NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda at the White House on Wednesday. Trump has been talking again about leaving the NATO alliance. He did not consult NATO allies before launching a war in Iran and then complained that many allies did not help.

2:09David Greene:The announcement of a two-week ceasefire doesn't appear to have eased the president's feelings. He This is a quote in all caps. NATO wasn't there when we needed them, and they won't be there if we need them again. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez is here to discuss the latest meeting. Good morning, Franco. Good morning, Lionel. So what came out of the NATO meeting? Yeah, I mean, it was a frank and open discussion where, according to the Secretary General, Trump raised his disappointment about countries who did not help the U.S. And in an interview with CNN, Ruda said he could see Trump's point.

2:41David Greene:At the same time, I was also able to point to the fact that the large majority of European nations has been helpful with basing, with logistics, with overflights, with making sure that they lift up to the commitments. Now, he would not say whether Trump told him he wanted to leave or, as the Wall Street Journal reported, is considering pulling U.S. troops from countries who were unhelpful. Now, Trump has long had a rocky relationship with NATO, but this war has really wrecked what foundation was left. And, you know, Trump's rage has just only intensified, calling NATO a paper tiger and attacking some leaders even by name.

3:21Yeah, and some of those European leaders that he was attacking, they say they weren't consulted about this war in the first place. What do you make of the joint statement from some members, including Britain, Germany and France, committing to ensuring freedom of navigation of the Strait of Hormuz?

3:35David Greene:Yeah, I wouldn't say it's very specific. Earlier in the war, leaders did express reluctance to get involved, worried about being drawn into a broader conflict. But diplomats did tell me before that their posture could shift once the war is officially over. Now, the ceasefire is already being tested by the heaviest and most wide-ranging Israeli strikes on Lebanon since the start of this war. Could that put this entire deal at risk? Yeah, I mean, it's very fragile. The White House says Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire, but the Iranian foreign minister says the terms are clear and that Washington must choose between a ceasefire or continue the war via Israel.

4:12David Greene:Actually, while President Trump remained behind closed doors yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance spoke to reporters in Hungary, and he called it a misunderstanding. No ceasefire ever goes without a little bit of choppiness. What we have been very clear about is that we want to stop the bombing. We want our allies to stop the bombing. And we want the Iranians to do the same thing. We're seeing evidence that things are going in the right direction, but it's going to take a little time. Vance is actually going to lead a high-level team of negotiators to Pakistan to meet with Iranian officials about the ceasefire.

4:46Now, the ceasefire was contingent on the Strait of Hormuz being open, but the Iranians said it was not because of the strikes in Lebanon. Did the White House give any clarity on that?

4:55David Greene:Yeah, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt pushed back on those reports, and she argued that what the Iranian government is saying publicly is very different than what it's saying privately. But I will just add that our own Mara Liason tried to press Levitt on who currently controls the strait, pushed her several times, and Levitt would not answer. That's White House correspondent Franco Ordonez reporting on this. Thank you, Franco. Thank you, Leila. It was supposed to be the first day of a ceasefire in the Middle East. And in the first 24 hours of that ceasefire, an oil refinery in Iran was hit, and five Gulf Arab states reported attacks from Iranian drones and missiles.

5:37David Greene:A blitz of Israeli airstrikes killed more than 250 people across Lebanon, according to authorities there. Joining us now is NPR international correspondent Ayah Batraoui in Dubai to talk about this. Good morning. Good morning, Leila. So tell us what's been happening across the region. You know, news of a ceasefire had come here overnight, but instead of waking up to that, missile alerts sounded across people's phones in the Gulf, including where I am. Iran says an oil refinery on its Levon Island was hit in what they described as an enemy attack. They also said Tehran and other cities in Iran were targeted by small attack drones, the origin of which they said was unknown.

6:15And then we saw attacks across the Gulf again yesterday. Kuwait says a wave of hostile drones from Iran caused significant damage to oil facilities, power stations, and water desalination plants. People were wounded here in the United Arab Emirates and in Bahrain, and even a main gas complex in Abu Dhabi caught fire. Saudi Arabia's critical east-west oil pipeline was also attacked, according to reports. Even Qatar said it intercepted drones and missiles, again, Leila, on what was supposed to be day one of a ceasefire. Now, all of this was happening as Israel launched its largest bombing of Lebanon since this war began.

6:48It said it was targeting Hezbollah, but the attack shook Beirut and tore through high-rise civilian neighborhoods there. OK, a lot of fire in the first day of a ceasefire. And in President Trump's latest post on Truth Social, he says U.S. aircraft and the tens of thousands of armed forces in the region will remain in place until a real agreement is reached. What's Iran saying? So Iran says it had made clear that any ceasefire deal must include Lebanon. And Pakistan, which brokered the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, also said Lebanon was included in the two-week ceasefire deal reached Tuesday night between Iran and the U.S.

7:22But the White House says it wasn't. Now, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Arakshi, as you just heard Franco say, said that the U.S. must choose ceasefire or continued war via Israel. He said it cannot have both. And Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it could strike at Israel again and that a U.S.-Iran meeting being planned tomorrow in Pakistan could be called off. But as I speak to you this morning, Emirati fighter jets are still patrolling the skies here. The region is on edge and this ceasefire is hardly holding. The foundation of this shaky ceasefire hinges on Iran opening that key waterway, right, the Strait of Hormuz for ships.

7:58And the U.S. and Israel holding their fire. Is that strait open? You know, when this ceasefire was announced, Iran's foreign minister said the safe passage of ships through the strait would be possible in coordination with Iran's armed forces. But yesterday, after Israel attacked some hundred areas of Lebanon, the Revolutionary Guard of Iran threatened it wouldn't be. Now, what we know from maritime intelligence firm Windward was that five ships transited through the strait yesterday. That's less than half of what transited the day before. And if these talks actually do take place in Pakistan, each side is coming with high demands, Leila.

8:30The U.S., Israel, and Gulf partners want Iran to stop nuclear enrichment, pause its ballistic missile production, end support to groups like Hezbollah, and open that straight fully. Iran, on its part, wants compensation for the war, sanctions lifted, says its missiles are a red line, and maintains that it has a right to enrichment. So if these talks take place tomorrow in Pakistan, it says Israel and Iran each say they, quote, have their finger on the trigger, and with each side, including President Trump, claiming victory going into these talks. High, high stakes. That's NPR's Ayy Abitrawi in Dubai.

9:01Thank you for your reporting. Thank you. As we've heard, Israeli strikes killed so many people in Lebanon that today is a day of national mourning.

9:10David Greene:Israeli attacks hit densely populated residential areas. Israel said it was striking leaders of the armed group Hezbollah, although its targets were far from that group's traditional strongholds. Strikes even hit near the Kornish, which is Beirut's famous seaside promenade. We are following reports of more attacks today. And NPR's Lauren Freyer is in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, and joins us now. Good morning, Lauren. Good morning. What is the situation where you are today? Well, church bells have tolled across Beirut on this national day of mourning. Even as warplanes still tear across the sky, people are still missing, still under the rubble.

9:46I heard more booms overnight. Israel says it hit another bridge in southern Lebanon after that wave of attacks yesterday in which Israel says it hit Beirut 100 times in 10 minutes, killing the nephew of Hezbollah's leader. Hezbollah, for its part, held its fire yesterday, says it viewed the ceasefire as including Lebanon. But today says it has fired rockets into northern Israel and air raid sirens have gone off there. Now, the Israeli military often issues evacuation orders, telling civilians to flee areas where it's targeting militants or groups. But I understand that didn't happen with these attacks?

10:22Well, it did issue orders for Beirut's southern suburbs, but then it attacked central Beirut itself in attacks of the UN Secretary General, the International Committee for the Red Cross have all condemned. You know, more than a million people have been displaced already by this Israeli invasion. The capital has swelled with a lot of those people, and now they're in danger here. We spoke with Zainab Ain. She's an 18-year-old college student from the south sheltering in Beirut. She stayed up late at night for that ceasefire announcement. sure it would mean attacks would stop and she'd return to her studies.

10:53I fell asleep, hoping that I'm going to wake up and go back home.

10:58David Greene:But I woke up and they were saying there is no ceasefire at all, that Lebanon was not included, which was sad. But hopefully Iran will do something about this. She says hopefully Iran will do something, you know, stick up for Lebanon. And that's what Iran says this closure of the Strait of Hormuz is about. It's Iran's response to these Israeli attacks against its proxy here in Lebanon, Hezbollah. And what effect is that having? I mean, we heard a little bit from Aya earlier. A fifth of the world's oil gets shipped through there. So this affects gas prices almost everywhere, right? Yeah, so oil is still at around$100 a barrel.

11:34That's about a third higher than before this war began. The U.S.-Iran ceasefire is supposed to sort of formalize a system of charging fees for ships to pass through that waterway. Some countries don't want that. You know, the British foreign secretary called today for the strait to go back to where it was before, a toll-free international waterway. But Iran wants, has control now and wants to keep that. And also, as we've been talking about, there's a meeting to work this out. Yeah, that's in Pakistan. Vice President J.D. Vance is going to that. Iran has threatened to cancel those talks, though, because of these attacks on Lebanon.

12:07Vance said yesterday that Israel has offered to, quote, check themselves a little bit in Lebanon to make sure those talks are successful. So we'll see if that happens. But meanwhile, Iranian media today published a chart suggesting that Iran's Revolutionary Guard may have laid mines under that waterway. President Trump shared a statement on social media saying U.S. troops and warships will stay in the region until all of this is resolved. And he said, if it isn't, quote, then the shooting starts bigger and better and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. That's NPR's Lauren Freyer in Beirut.

12:41Thank you for your reporting. You're welcome.

12:47And that's Up First for Thursday, April 9th. I'm Leila Faldin.

12:51David Greene:And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Jerry Holmes, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Taylor Haney. It was produced by Ziad Batch and Ava Pukic. Our director is Katie Kline. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines. And our technical director is Carly Strange. Our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us tomorrow.

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