Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh

The Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday were a "grave violation" of the US-Iran ceasefire, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh has said in an exclusive interview with the BBC.

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Khatibzadeh accuses Israel of a "massacre" in Lebanon - air strikes that killed 182 people there on Wednesday, according to the health ministry.

Khatibzadeh says "we ask everyone in the Middle East to be abiding by this ceasefire that we reached with Americans".

Khatibzadeh says Iran sent a message to the Oval Office last night: "You cannot have a cake and eat it at the same time."

He adds: "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 says the strikes by Israel amount to a "sort of genocide". Israel insists it is hitting the militant group Hezbollah, which is itself firing rockets into Israel.

Asked if this means Iran will ask its militant proxy, Hezbollah, to stop firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon. Khatibzadeh says that "it's quite clear Hezbollah is a pure Lebanese freedom movement".

He is pressed on whether he is denying that Iranian officers are advising, training and arming Hezbollah.

"I'm not denying that," he says, adding that he is "not shy to say" that Iran provides "support to this freedom and resistance movement", but it is "not true that they are acting on behalf of us".

He adds that, on the US-Iran deal, it was included that Iran and its allies and the US and its allies were "going to accept ceasefire from that moment".

In this weekend's talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan, Khatibzadeh says that "back and forth messages" between both sides continued through Pakistan last night.

He adds that Iran is "very much focused on getting this done" as it's "within our national interests".

He says he understands that US Vice President JD Vance is going to lead the talks for the US, and the speaker of Iran's parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, is going to lead the talks for Iran.