(Washington, D.C., June 8, 2026) – In response to Israel's attacks on Beirut and Iran and Iran's retaliatory strikes against Israel, DAWN issues the following statement:
"By striking Beirut, Israel transparently sought to sabotage the emerging U.S.-Iran agreement," said Omar Shakir, DAWN's Executive Director. "Leaked reports and public statements about U.S. disapproval of Israel's actions are meaningless so long as the U.S. fails to use its actual leverage–suspending arms transfers and intelligence with Israel–to stop Israel's aggression in Iran, Lebanon and beyond."
"The past few days underscore the urgency of the U.S. decoupling its Middle East policy from Israel," said Raed Jarrar, DAWN's Advocacy Director. "Israel and the U.S. have had fundamentally different objectives in this war, but, by failing to take action to stop Israel, Trump has effectively handed Netanyahu a veto over the negotiations and the ability of the U.S. to end this war on its own terms."
"When U.S. policy is shaped by the actions of a third country pursuing its own agenda, diplomacy becomes harder, escalation more likely, and the prospects for a durable peace more remote," said Omid Memarian, Senior Iran Analyst at DAWN. "Israel's actions in recent days are not only making the possibility of reaching an agreement more and more difficult, but risk fueling instability and harming U.S. interests across the entire region."
Background
Israel struck two apartment buildings in Beirut's southern Dahiyeh suburbs on the afternoon of June 7, 2026, killing at least two people and wounding at least eleven, with later reports putting the injured at around twenty. Within hours, Iran fired approximately ten ballistic missiles at northern Israel.
President Trump told Fox News in a phone interview on June 7, 2026, that he was "not happy" that Israel had targeted Hezbollah in Beirut and urged Iran to come back to the table: "You've shot your missiles, that's enough. Get back to the table and make a deal." Trump separately told Axios that he was going to call Netanyahu "right now and tell him not to retaliate." His objection to the strike follows a June 1 Axios report, corroborated by other sources, in which a senior US official said that Trump, , amid reports that Israel planned a further assault in Beirut, told Netanyahu: "You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass." A second source briefed on the call said Trump shouted at Netanyahu: "What the fuck are you doing?" After that call, an Israeli official told Axios the Beirut strikes "would not be happening."
Overnight, Israeli forces launched strikes on Iranian military targets and a petrochemical plant on the morning of June 8, prompting Iran to fire further ballistic missile salvos at Israel, Yemen's Houthis also fired a missile at Tel Aviv. The Israeli military said Iran has launched 24 ballistic missiles at Israel since Sunday night, all of which were intercepted or struck open areas.
For more on the divergence in Israeli and U.S. interests in this war, see DAWN Executive Director Omar Shakir's March 19 piece in Foreign Policy, "The U.S. and Israel Aren't Fighting the Same War."
