Iran-US war live: Deadly barrage of Israeli strikes on Lebanon test fragile ceasefire-Breaking News, Latest Updates

While the alliance contends with a possible future without the US, Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte — who has spent a year fawning over Trump in an apparent attempt to diplomatically stroke the president’s ego — is tasked with keeping the president close.

Rutte, who referred to Trump as “daddy” and sent him a swooning text message that the president posted on Truth Social, mounted a charm offensive last year to maintain a frail alliance that Trump has hollowed out with calls to war and insults directed to European allies who dared criticize his actions.

Rutte is now caught between a president who threatens to abandon the alliance and Nato members who have clashed with his own public statements supporting the US-Israeli campaign and public appeals for Americans to get behind their president.

The White House is weighing moving US troops from Nato countries that Donald Trump deemed as unhelpful in his military campaign against Iran, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

These troops would then be relocated to allied countries believed to be more supportive of the war effort, according to the WSJ.

The Israel Defence Forces has said it hit more than 100 targets in Lebanon in 10 minutes.

“The strike targeted 100+ Hezbollah headquarters, military arrays, & command-and-control centers in Beirut, Beqaa and southern Lebanon”, the IDF wrote on X Wednesday afternoon, local time.

At least 254 people were killed and another 1,165 were injured as Israel carried out a devastating bombardment on Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Civil Defence.

Donald Trump made a dig at Greenland while ranting about Nato after meeting with the military alliance’s chief, Mark Rutte.

The US president wrote on Truth Social Wednesday evening, Washington time, in all caps, “Nato wasn’t there when we needed them, and they won’t be there if we need them again.

“Remember Greenland, that big, poorly run, piece of ice!!!”

Trump has tried to acquire Greenland by pressuring the Nato country into a deal, but the semi-autonomous Danish territory has resisted.

Rutte met with Trump at the White House earlier in the day, telling CNN after the meeting that the US president was “clearly disappointed with many Nato allies”.

But the Nato secretary general insisted that the “large majority” of allied nations have been helpful in Trump’s war against Iran.

Trump has grown increasingly sour towards Nato after his allies refused to help him secure the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil passageway that Iran effectively closed during the U.S.-Israeli strikes against the country.

Three journalists were killed, one in Gaza and two in Lebanon, during strikes carried out by Israel on Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported.

Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Wishah died after his car was hit by an Israeli drone in Gaza City, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Journalists Ghada Dayekh from Sawt Al-Farah and Suzan Khalil from Al-Manar TV and Al-Nour Radio were reportedly killed as Israel launched a heavy bombardment on Lebanon following a US-Iran ceasefire agreement.

Committee to Protect Journalists Regional Director Sara Qudah said in a statement, “Journalists are being killed at a pace and scale that should shock the conscience of the world. These are not isolated tragedies; they reflect a systematic failure to uphold the most basic protections owed to civilian journalists under international law”.

Al Jazeera said it strongly condemned Wishah’s killing, which it claimed was a targeted attack.

“As Al Jazeera mourns its correspondent Mohammed Wishah, who joined the Network in 2018, it affirms that his killing was not a random act but a deliberate and targeted crime intended to intimidate journalists and prevent them from carrying out their professional duties,” the news organization said in a statement.

Avicha Adraee, Israel Defence Forces spokesperson to the Arab media, wrote on X that Wishah was a “Hamas terrorist”.

Speaking to reporters before leaving Hungary, the US vice president said Iran questioning the workability of a ceasefire because it disagrees with the U.S. on three key points “must mean there’s a lot of points of agreement.”

Frustration on three issues “actually means that there’s a lot of agreements,” JD Vance said.

The vice president, who is set to participate in negotiations in Pakistan this weekend, said “ceasefires are always messy” and often feature “a little bit of choppiness.”

It wasn’t all positive, though. Vance also questioned the English skills of Iran parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and his comments on the fragile nature of the ceasefire.

“I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English,” Vance said “because there are things that he said that just didn’t make sense in the context of the negotiations that we’ve had.”

Nato ​Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday he believes that some Nato countries were ⁠tested and failed amid Washington’s criticism over European allies not getting involved in the U.S. and Israel’s ⁠war against ​Iran.

Rutte’s ⁠comments came after a meeting with U.S. President Donald ⁠Trump at the White House ​earlier ⁠in the ‌day.

During an interview with CNN, the Nato chief was asked ‌if he believed Nato ‌countries were tested and failed.

“Some of them yes, but a ⁠large majority of European countries, and that’s what we discussed today, have done what they promised before in a case like this,” he told CNN.

Rutte said ‌he had a “frank and ​open” discussion with Trump, where ‌the Republican ⁠expressed disappointment with America’s allies.

He ⁠said he pointed to Trump that ‌European countries ​assisted with logistics ‌and other commitments.

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday ⁠that he had a “frank and open” discussion with ⁠U.S. ​President Donald ⁠Trump, where the Republican ⁠expressed disappointment with ​America’s ⁠allies.

“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,” ‌Rutte ⁠told CNN during ⁠an interview after the ‌meeting.