Negotiators from Iran and the U.S. prepared for high-level talks with their ceasefire still shaky Friday, as Israel and Hezbollah traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
There remain many issues that would derail the truce — in addition to negotiations for broader deal to permanently end the war.
Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, near the Revolutionary Guard, claimed that talks set for Saturday wouldn’t occur unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon. And U.S. President Donald Trump complained that Iran was “doing a really poor job” by not allowing the free flow of ships through the strait, through which 20% of the world’s traded oil once passed.
Kuwait, meanwhile, said it faced a drone attack Thursday night that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies within the region. Though Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard denied launching any assault, it has carried out attacks across the Mideast previously that it didn’t claim.
And yet, preparations for the talks between Iran and the U.S. in Pakistan appeared to maneuver forward, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance set to take off from Washington. Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, meanwhile, are expected to start next week in Washington, in line with a U.S. official and an individual aware of the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of the delicacy of the matter.
Israel, Lebanon could have direct negotiations
Israel’s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran doesn’t include a pause in its fighting with Hezbollah, which joined the war in support of its backer, Iran, has threatened to scupper the deal.
The day the truce was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing greater than 300 people, in line with Lebanon’s Health Ministry. It was the deadliest day within the country because the war began Feb. 28.
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Trump said Thursday that he has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial back the strikes. Early Friday, Israel’s military said it hit roughly 10 launchers in Lebanon that had fired rockets toward northern Israel a day earlier.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned Thursday that continued Israeli attacks on Hezbollah would bring “explicit costs and STRONG responses.”
Netanyahu, meanwhile, said that he authorized the negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” with the aim of disarming Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors, which have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948.
The Lebanese government had not responded as of early afternoon Friday. The timing and site of the talks were first reported by Axios.
Two days after Israel’s intense barrage, people sifted through the wreckage of their homes, attempting to salvage whatever furniture and private mementos they might find within the rubble. Some expressed gratitude that they lost only their homes and belongings, not their family members, as others had.
“There is no such thing as a substitute for family,” said Wissam Tabila, 35. “All the things else may be replaced.”
Strait of Hormuz a sticking point
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil prices skyrocketing, driven stocks down and roiled the world economy. Tehran’s control over the waterway has proved its biggest strategic advantage within the war.
The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $97 Friday, up greater than 30 per cent because the war began.
Before the conflict, over 100 ships passed through the strait every day — many carrying oil to Asia. With the ceasefire in place, only 12 have been recorded passing through.
Underscoring the precarious situation, a Botswana-flagged liquefied natural gas tanker attempted to travel out of the Persian Gulf via a route ordered by the Revolutionary Guard, but suddenly turned around early Friday, ship-tracking data showed.
The top of the United Arab Emirates’ major oil company, Sultan al-Jaber, said some 230 ships loaded with oil were waiting to get through the strait and should be allowed “to navigate this corridor without condition.”
U.S. President Donald Trump complained about that situation, writing on his social media platform: “Iran is doing a really poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to undergo the Strait of Hormuz.”
“That will not be the agreement now we have!” Trump wrote of the trickle of ships Iran has allowed to pass.
The ceasefire deal continues to be fragile
Questions also remain over the fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs — which the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war.
The U.S. insists Iran mustn’t ever have the opportunity to construct nuclear weapons and desires to remove Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which may very well be used to make them. Iran insists its program is peaceful.
Trump has said that the U.S. would work with Iran to remove the uranium, though Tehran has not confirmed that.
The chief of Iran’s nuclear agency, Mohammad Eslami, said Thursday that protecting Tehran’s right to complement uranium is “needed” for any ceasefire talks.
Greater than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, in line with a top Iranian medical official. Iran’s government has not provided any definitive death toll from the weekslong war.
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