TEHRAN, 15 August, 2026 (Ghufran): Iranian Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator for talks with the United States, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, has said negotiations with Washington were suspended following an Israeli strike in southern Beirut that killed a senior Hezbollah commander.According to Iranian media, Qalibaf said Hezbollah’s intelligence chief was killed along with members of his family in the Israeli attack on the Dahiyeh area of southern Beirut. Qalibaf said Iran had decided to halt the negotiations following the attack, adding that Tehran had made it clear that it would respond to the strike on the same night. He warned that if Israel retaliated against Iran, Tehran would target the entire region. Qalibaf also spoke about a dispute over a reported understanding concerning the Strait of Hormuz. He said that after the blockade was lifted, US President Donald Trump posted on social media that the blockade would be lifted that night and that Iran would open the Strait of Hormuz in return.Qalibaf said he rejected the reported understanding and instructed mediators to have the reference to the Strait of Hormuz removed from the US president’s post, arguing that no such agreement had been reached. He warned that otherwise Iran would carry out an attack with the same intensity he had previously announced. According to Qalibaf, Trump removed the reference to the second part of the post 58 minutes later and stated that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened on Saturday under the agreement.Qalibaf described the negotiations with Washington as a form of “struggle” rather than conventional diplomacy, underscoring the deep differences between the two sides.