Progress in US-Iran talks stalls after Hezbollah rejects truce
Published in News & Features
There was no sign of progress in ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran after the worst burst of violence in weeks and as the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia rejected on Thursday a U.S.-brokered truce in Lebanon.
President Donald Trump said ceasefire talks are in the “final” stages. Earlier, Iran’s foreign minister said the negotiations had stalled. On Wednesday, Iran fired missiles and drones at Kuwait and Bahrain, killing one person and injuring dozens at Kuwait’s main airport, after the U.S. struck an oil tanker headed to the Islamic Republic.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah militants said they refused to abide by the conditions of a ceasefire announced by the U.S. State Department only hours before. At least four people were killed in Israeli strikes, the Associated Press reported. And Israel’s military said Hezbollah launched several rockets toward its soldiers, with no injuries reported.
Despite the continued fighting, oil prices slipped after three days of gains amid investor optimism in the wake of the U.S. announcement of the Lebanon truce deal. Israel’s continued military strikes there have become a major obstacle as Trump seeks to extricate the U.S. from the Iran war that he started.
Trump has repeatedly claimed a deal is close even as Iran refuses give in to his demands on its nuclear program and his terms of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, the waterway carried a fifth of world oil supplies, but they’ve been largely cut off since the U.S. and Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28. Industry officials have warned prices could spike again as inventories are drawn down.
On Thursday, Trump said in a social media post he’s “right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” He didn’t elaborate on the talks, using the post to blast a vote by the Republican-led House of Representatives to halt the war.
While it won’t end the U.S. military campaign against Iran, the move is a reflection of the increasing unpopularity of the conflict in the U.S. and worries from Trump’s own party about the conflict’s impact on the midterm elections.
Trump’s post came just hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said “no tangible progress has been achieved in the negotiation process” with the U.S., the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Among the conditions Iran has set was an end to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, where its forces have launched a major drive to oust Iran-backed Hezbollah.
“For Iran, the question is ‘Will Trump restrain Israel?’” said Nate Swanson, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former U.S. official who worked on Iran at the State Department and White House National Security Council. “If he can’t restrain them in Lebanon, how can he restrain them in Iran?”
On Thursday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qasem dismissed the U.S.-brokered deal between Israel and the Lebanese government as “absurd.” The group, which is not a party to the negotiations, will not accept linking its presence in Lebanon with stopping the war and Israel’s withdrawal, he said in a letter. Clashes continued in southern Lebanon.
Here’s more on the war:
—Iran allowed the United Nations atomic watchdog this week to visit its Bushehr nuclear power plants, while stonewalling inspectors’ demands to verify the condition and location of its enriched uranium stockpile.
—The UK and France have finalized plans to lead a multinational mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz within days of an agreement between the U.S. and Iran to reopen the waterway, according to people familiar with the matter.
—The Israeli army carried out airstrikes on four targets in Gaza City, the Palestinian territory’s main city, according to local media reports.
—One member of the U.N.’s interim force in Lebanon was killed and two others injured after a strike in the southeast of the country, UNIFIL said.
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—With assistance from Carla Canivete.
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