Iranian Navy Commander Shahram Irani has called US President Donald Trump's threat to block the Strait of Hormuz "ridiculous" after marathon talks between Tehran and Washington in Pakistan failed to produce an agreement to end the standoff, AFP reports.
"The brave members of the Islamic Republic of Iran's naval forces are monitoring and supervising all movements of the aggressive US military in the region. The US president's threats to blockade Iran at sea... are very ridiculous and absurd," he said, according to state television.
Iran has shown goodwill in negotiations with the United States, which has led to progress in the talks, the country's chief negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said, The Guardian reports, citing Iranian state media.
Qalibaf said that US President Donald Trump's new threats will have no impact on the Iranian people.
"If you fight, we will fight, and if you come with logic, we will respond with logic. We will not bow to any threats – let them test our will once again, so that we can teach them an even greater lesson," he said.
The United Kingdom will not participate in any blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the Guardian reports, despite claims by US President Donald Trump that the United States will block the Strait of Hormuz with the help of NATO allies.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said it wouldn't take long for the strait to be cleared and claimed that a number of countries would help, adding that the UK and other countries were sending minesweepers.
The UK has previously indicated that it could play a role in ensuring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, and already has mine detection systems and anti-drone capabilities in the region.
The White House today announced "red lines" that it says Iran was not prepared to accept during marathon talks in Pakistan this weekend, CNN reports.
Many of these conditions have already been rejected by Iran, while Tehran appears to be maintaining a tough stance even after six weeks of war.
According to White House officials, this is what United States President Donald Trump has outlined as non-negotiable points:
- cessation of all uranium enrichment activities
- dismantling the main enrichment facilities, which were severely damaged during the US bombing in June last year
- retrieval of more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium believed to be buried underground
- accepting a broader framework for peace, security and de-escalation that includes regional allies
- suspension of funding for allied militant groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi
- full opening of the Strait of Hormuz, without tolls
US Vice President J.D. Vance said, as he left Islamabad this weekend, that he had put a "best and final" offer on the table, suggesting there was still room for Iran to accept American conditions.
After US President Donald Trump said today that the United Kingdom and other countries would send minesweepers to the Strait of Hormuz, the British government said it was trying to assemble a "broad coalition" with France and other countries to ensure unhindered passage through the waterway.
"We continue to support freedom of navigation and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, which is urgently needed to support the global economy and reduce the cost of living in our country," a British government spokesman told CNN on Sunday.
"The Strait of Hormuz must not be subject to tolls. We are urgently working with France and other partners to form a broad coalition to protect freedom of navigation," the spokesman added.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced today that the Israeli army carried out strikes on its members and opened fire in their vicinity.
"In two separate incidents today, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers struck UNIFIL vehicles with a Merkava tank, in one case causing significant damage," a UNIFIL statement said.
"Soldiers have blocked a road in the Bayada area used to access UNIFIL positions. Over the past week, Israeli soldiers have fired 'warning shots' in the area, hitting and damaging clearly marked UNIFIL vehicles," the statement added.
"In one case, a 'warning shot' fell just a meter from a peacekeeper who had exited his vehicle," UNIFIL said.
Iranian President Masoud Peshmerga reportedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus that Tehran is ready to reach an agreement on long-term regional peace, "provided that Iran's national interests are respected," CNN reports.
Pezeshkian said that the biggest obstacle to reaching a fair agreement is the double standards and hegemonic approach of the American side, Iranian state television IRIB reported.
According to a statement by Iranian state media, during the conversation, Pezeshkian condemned the use of US military bases in Gulf countries to carry out attacks on Iran.
Despite the tensions, he described the neighboring Gulf states as brothers and affirmed Tehran's readiness to establish a regional security framework that would exclude "external forces."
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is fully prepared to reach a balanced and just agreement that ensures long-lasting peace and security in the region," Pezeshkian said, according to IRIB.
He added that Iran's "red line" is its national interests and the rights of the Iranian people, and that an agreement would be possible if the United States respects international legal frameworks, according to IRIB.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned in a recent statement that the approach of military vessels to the Strait of Hormuz is considered a violation of the ceasefire, the Guardian reports.
"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy announces that, contrary to the false claims of some enemy officials, the Strait of Hormuz is under intelligent control and management, open to the unhindered passage of civilian vessels in accordance with special regulations, while any military vessel that attempts to approach the Strait of Hormuz, under any pretext, will be considered a violation of the ceasefire and will be dealt with harshly and decisively," the statement said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited southern Lebanon today to assess the situation in Israeli-controlled territory, an Israeli official and a source familiar with the visit told CNN.
This is a rare visit and Netanyahu's first known trip to Lebanon since the start of the Iran-Iraq war, and it comes two days before planned direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington.
Netanyahu was accompanied by Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.
Israel continues to carry out attacks on Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah, with the message that negotiations will be conducted under fire, while the pro-Iranian paramilitary group continues rocket attacks on northern Israel.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes that inflation in the United States will be more persistent and will take longer to return to its 2 percent target due to the war in Iran, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said, CNN reports.
Before the war, the IMF had forecast that headline inflation in the United States could return to the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target early next year. "Now that may be somewhat delayed," Georgieva said in an interview with CBS News.
The war has already accelerated price increases in the United States. A spike in fuel prices caused by the conflict helped push inflation to 3,3 percent in March, with prices rising three times faster than in February, according to the latest consumer price index data.
The Washington-based IMF will release the latest edition of its "World Economic Outlook" report on Tuesday, providing an updated assessment of the impact of the war in Iran on the global economy.
Iraq's ambassador to Saudi Arabia has been summoned to the Saudi Foreign Ministry, a post on the Iks website said today, over alleged "attacks and open threats" against the country and its neighbors, allegedly coming from Iraqi territory.
Saudi Arabia condemns and rejects the attacks launched from Iraqi territory against the Kingdom and other Gulf states, the announcement said.
Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Saud Al-Sati stressed to the Iranian ambassador that Baghdad must deal responsibly with these attacks, the statement added.
For Israel, this war is not over until there is a complete break in ties between Iran and its proxies, said Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, emphasizing at the same time that there is still one more week left for possible (peace) negotiations between Iran and the United States.
Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" a few hours after marathon negotiations between the United States and Iran ended without an agreement, Leiter said he didn't think the talks were going anywhere, but that it was important to give them a chance.
Yet he has again supported Israel's military campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. When Israeli attacks intensified on Wednesday, they threatened to undermine a fragile truce between the United States and Iran. That single day of Israeli strikes, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, killed at least 357 people and wounded at least 1.200.
Afterwards, US Vice President J.D. Vance said that Israel had agreed to “restrain its activities a little bit,” although Leiter declined to reveal exactly what had been agreed, saying that operational matters were not discussed on Sunday morning television shows.
“We talked about acting in line with the President’s (Trump) efforts in the Gulf,” he said, insisting that the United States and Israel remain fully aligned.
He also stated that Israeli attacks on Wednesday were aimed at Hezbollah command centers.
Although Israel continues to attack Lebanon, there are some talks aimed at ending the conflict. Leiter said he had an excellent conversation with the Lebanese ambassador in Washington and the US ambassador in Beirut on Friday.
US President Donald Trump has threatened China with a 50% tariff on Chinese goods if Beijing provides military aid to Iran, warning that the United States will respond if such arms transfers occur, CNN reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Massoud Pezeshkian that he was ready to participate in mediation in the Middle East conflict, the Kremlin announced today.
Two empty tankers sailing towards the Strait of Hormuz turned back after it was announced that talks between the United States and Iran had ended without a long-term peace agreement, according to ship tracking company Vortex.
One of the two tankers, which is bound for Pakistan, has since returned and is currently waiting just outside the strait, Pamela Manger, head of European market analysis at Vortex, a trade and shipping intelligence company, told CNN.
The vessel's movements show that control of the Strait of Hormuz remains largely in Iranian hands, she said.
Trump said Iran would return to the negotiating table, warning that he could destroy the country in a day.
"I predict they'll come back and give us everything we want," Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
"I want everything... They don't have any cards with them," he added.
He also defended his threat from the previous week that "an entire civilization will disappear, and never return," arguing that the statement actually brought Tehran to the negotiating table.
"Think about it - they can say 'Death to America, death to this,' and I say one sentence and everyone goes, 'Oh, what a big deal.' That statement brought them to the negotiating table and they didn't leave," Trump said.
Speaking after talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan ended without an agreement, Trump repeated threats made before the talks that he might target Iran's energy infrastructure.
"I could destroy Iran in one day," the US president threatened.
"In one hour I could destroy their entire energy grid, all their power plants, electrical generators, which is a big deal. And I don't want to do that, because if I do that, it takes you 10 years to rebuild it, they'll never be able to get it back. And the other thing you can destroy is bridges," he said.
US President Donald Trump, in a telephone interview with Fox News, reiterated that the United States would impose a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which would constitute a major escalation of the war, but acknowledged that it could take some time. Trump then claimed that it would not take long to "clean up" the strait.
He also stated that NATO, an alliance he has repeatedly criticized for, as he says, its unwillingness to help him in the war against Iran, wants to participate in unblocking the strait.
Trump said that two US destroyers passed through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday at a time of fragile truce with Iran.
"Yesterday you probably saw that we sent two very sophisticated, beautiful, brand new destroyers right through the strait, and nobody did anything to us," the US president said.
Entering the talks in Pakistan this weekend, U.S. officials outlined several key areas where progress was needed to declare the talks a success. But after hours of talks that lasted into the early hours of the morning, the U.S. and Iranian negotiating teams reached an impasse on several of those key issues, CNN reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the talks.
Tehran's refusal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium was unacceptable to the United States.
Without resolving these issues, Iran's demands for the US to lift sanctions and unfreeze billions of dollars in frozen assets were also rejected, leading both sides to declare the marathon negotiations a failure.
Some officials have also pointed to fundamental differences in negotiating approaches as one reason for the stalemate. Iran has previously been prepared for lengthy and complex negotiations to reach an agreement. The process that led to the Obama-era nuclear deal took about two years.
On the other hand, Donald Trump's willingness to engage in lengthy negotiations seems very limited.
The main points of Iranian resistance, the nuclear program and the strait, pose particular challenges for the United States.
Both sides have made proposals to resolve the nuclear issue during the talks, officials said. Trump has previously said the United States and Iran will work together to remove what he calls "nuclear dust," but Iran has not shown any willingness to do so.
The Strait of Hormuz is a more recent problem. Iran kept the waterway open during previous negotiations, but restricted tanker traffic after the US and Israel launched attacks. Now the closure is causing turmoil in global energy markets and political pressure on Trump at home.
Iranian negotiators, aware of the leverage that control of the strait gives them, have refused to accept demands to reopen it until a final agreement is reached, the sources said.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News today that the United States and other countries will send minesweepers to the Strait of Hormuz to remove mines that he claims were laid by Iran.
"We have minesweepers there. We now have very sophisticated underwater minesweepers, the latest and greatest, but we are also bringing in traditional minesweepers. And I understand that the UK and a few other countries are sending minesweepers," he said.
Lebanon must be included in the ceasefire agreement between Iran and the United States, said Pascal Confavre, spokesman for the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
"The attacks on Lebanon must stop," Confavre told Fox News in an interview today, adding that the country has been severely destabilized and that a million people have now been displaced.
"This destabilization will only benefit Hezbollah in the future," he said, referring to the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon that Israel has targeted.
"Iran must stop terrorizing Israel through Hezbollah," he added.
The United States and Israel have said Lebanon is not part of a two-week ceasefire agreement reached last Tuesday, contradicting the positions of Iran and Pakistan.
Israel has continued its attacks on Hezbollah since the ceasefire was announced, with local media reporting new deadly strikes overnight in southern Lebanon. Talks between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats are expected this week.
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