Iran live updates: Trump calls GOP backers of war powers resolution 'grandstanders'

President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.

Following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, initial U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan in April failed to reach a peace deal.

Trump later announced the open-ended extension of the ceasefire and the continuation of a U.S. blockade until negotiations are concluded "one way or the other."

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in a statement read on TV on Thursday, saying "as long as the occupation exists, the resistance will continue."

Describing the negotiations between Lebanese authorities and Israeli part as "absurd, humiliating, and shameful" Qassem said that the negotiations are "completely rejected by broad segments of the Lebanese people."

He added that the agreement's demand that Hezbollah should leave southern Lebanon while it is under fire would mean "surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy's goals."

"The ceasefire must be comprehensive, with no separation between the south and the rest of Lebanon, and no freedom for the Israeli enemy to kill in Lebanon. As long as the occupation persists, the resistance will continue," Qassem said.

"The Washington Declaration is a roadmap for the annihilation of a segment of the Lebanese people and the enslavement of the rest. To pursue a security track under the guise of a fictitious ceasefire is like the devil's dream of entering paradise," he said.

He thanked Iran for helping Lebanon to reclaim its "land and rights" despite its own confrontations.

President Donald Trump on Thursday called the House-approved war powers resolution a "meaningless vote," and the four Republicans who crossed party lines to advance the legislation "grandstanders" -- saying their actions were "unpatriotic."

"Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Who would do such an unpatriotic thing," Trump wrote Thursday morning in a post to his social media platform.

Trump claimed that the four Republicans know where negotiations stand between the U.S. and Iran and "should be ashamed of themselves."

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israeli attacks on Hezbollah will continue in southern Lebanon and that displaced Lebanese residents will not be allowed to return, despite Wednesday's agreement to implement a ceasefire i