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LAST UPDATE | 15 Apr
IRAN’S MILITARY WARNED it would block trade through the Red Sea, along with the Gulf and Sea of Oman, if the US naval blockade on Iranian ports continues.
In a statement carried by Iranian state television, the head of the military’s central command centre said if the US continues with its blockade and “creates insecurity for Iran’s commercial vessels and oil tankers”, it will also constitute “a prelude” to violating the ceasefire.
“The powerful armed forces of the Islamic republic will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea,” said Ali Abdollahi.
He added that Iran will “act decisively to defend its national sovereignty and its interests”.
The United States has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports since Monday after US-Iran talks over the weekend in Pakistan failed to produce a deal to end the war.
But maritime tracking data on Tuesday indicated that several ships sailing from Iranian ports had crossed the Strait of Hormuz despite the blockade.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted unnamed informed sources as saying that shipping from Iran’s southern ports had continued.
It added that Iranian “commercial vessels have set sail for various destinations around the world” during the past 24 hours.
Even as diplomacy advanced, Trump sought to tighten pressure on Iran with a naval blockade.
US Central Command said yesterday that American forces “have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea.”
Maritime tracking data yesterday suggested several ships that had visited Iranian ports had crossed since the blockade began.
Iran’s military command called the blockade an act of piracy and warned that if the security of its harbours was threatened, “no port in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea will be safe.”
Analysts said Trump was aiming not only to choke off Iranian revenue but also to pressure Beijing, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, to push Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
China called the blockade “dangerous and irresponsible” after Trump threatened to sink any vessel seeking to leave or dock at Iranian ports.
Still, the truce agreed last Wednesday between Washington and Tehran remained in place.
And Trump said that the war with Iran is “very close to over” in an interview today with FOX Business’s “Mornings with Maria” to air.
Stock markets climbed on renewed hopes for a deal to end the war and reopen the waterway, while the main international oil contracts fell back, with Brent North Sea Crude at $94.79 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate at $91.28.
The US Treasury said it did not plan to renew a temporary easing of sanctions on Iranian oil that was introduced to soften war-related supply shocks.
Elsewhere in the Middle Eastern conflict, Israel and Lebanon agreed to launch direct negotiations after holding their first high-level diplomatic talks since 1993.
The negotiations were fiercely opposed by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which said it fired rockets at more than a dozen towns in northern Israel just as the meeting got under way.
Washington is pressing for an end to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, fearing it could unravel the fragile two-week ceasefire in its own war with Iran, after earlier talks with Tehran in Pakistan failed to produce a breakthrough.
Lebanon was drawn into the broader war when Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of Iran, its key ally, triggering an Israeli ground invasion and strikes that have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than a million.
The Washington meeting - the first direct, high-level talks since 1993 – was mediated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and involved the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States.
“This is a historic opportunity,” Rubio said as he welcomed the ambassadors, acknowledging the “decades of history” weighing on the process.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said he hoped the talks would “mark the beginning of the end of the suffering of the Lebanese people.”
A State Department spokesperson later described the discussions as “productive,” adding: “All sides agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue.”
Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter said the two countries had discovered they were “on the same side” in the goal of liberating Lebanon from Hezbollah while Lebanese envoy Nada Hamadeh Moawad called the meeting “constructive,” but said she had pressed for a ceasefire.
Israel is occupying parts of southern Lebanon and has resisted any pause in fighting that leaves Hezbollah intact, arguing that the group remains the central obstacle to peace.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said yesterday that US-Iran peace talks could resume this week, signalling movement on two key fronts in efforts to ease the Middle East conflict.
Trump told The New York Post a new round of talks with Tehran could take place in Pakistan “over the next two days,” after saying the day before that unnamed Iranian officials had called him seeking a deal.
Before the Washington meeting, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem had called for the negotiations to be scrapped and vowed to keep fighting.
Foreign ministers from 17 countries, including Britain and France, urged both sides to seize the opportunity to bring lasting security to the region.
At the heart of any renewed US-Iran diplomacy is the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
US vice president JD Vance said that Trump told Iran that the United States would “make Iran thrive” if it committed to “not having a nuclear weapon”.
“That’s the kind of Trumpian grand bargain that the president has put on the table. Man, we’re going to keep on negotiating and try to make it happen,” Vance told an event on Tuesday in the US state of Georgia.
UN chief António Guterres said there was “no military solution” to the conflict and that peace required “persistent engagement and political will.”
“Serious negotiations must resume,” he told journalists in New York.
Senior Pakistani sources told AFP that Islamabad was working to bring Iran and the United States together for a second round of talks.
Trump has insisted any deal must permanently bar Iran from becoming nuclear-armed, after launching the war on the claim that Tehran was seeking an atomic bomb – an allegation it denies.
Media reports said the United States sought a 20-year suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme during the weekend talks.
Iran, in turn, proposed suspending its nuclear activity for five years, an offer US officials rejected, The New York Times reported.
Diplomatic efforts also accelerated elsewhere, with Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing, according to Chinese state media, hours after speaking to his Iranian counterpart.
Russia and China agreed in a call this month to work together to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, while Moscow has offered to hold Iran’s enriched uranium safely as part of any deal.
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