This is an entry from: Live: Israel issues expulsion orders in south Lebanon as more killed by air strikes
Iranian minister to US: 'You cannot have a cake and eat it at the same time'
9 April 2026 07:58 BST
Iran's deputy foreign minister said that the US cannot ask for a ceasefire while its "ally just starts a massacre", referring to Israel's attacks on Lebanon that has left over 250 people killed on Wednesday.
In a BBC Today programme interview with Saeed Khatibzadeh, the minister indicated that Tehran conveyed these remarks in a message to the Oval Office.
"You cannot have a cake and eat it at the same time," he said. "You cannot ask for a ceasefire and then accept terms and conditions, accept all the areas that a ceasefire is applied to, and name Lebanon, exactly Lebanon in that, and then your ally just starts a massacre."
Khatibzadeh described Israel's assault on Lebanon as a "sort of genocide".