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US, Iran Ready for Ceasefire Talks 04/10 06:08
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.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- 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 could derail the truce -- as well as
negotiations for broader deal to permanently end the war.
Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guard,
claimed that talks set for Saturday wouldn't happen unless Israel stopped its
attacks in Lebanon. And U.S. President Donald Trump complained that Iran was
"doing a very 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 in the region. Though Iran's paramilitary
Revolutionary Guard denied launching any assault, it has carried out attacks
across the Mideast in the past that it did not claim.
And yet, preparations for the talks between Iran and the U.S. in Pakistan
appeared to move forward, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance set to take off
from Washington. Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, meanwhile, are
expected to begin next week in Washington, according to a U.S. official and a
person familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the
delicacy of the matter.
Israel and Lebanon will have direct negotiations
Israel's insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does not 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 more than 300 people, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. It was
the deadliest day in the country since the war began Feb. 28.
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
approximately 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 location of the talks were first reported by Axios.
Two days after Israel's intense barrage, people sifted through the wreckage
of their homes, trying to salvage whatever furniture and personal mementos they
could find in the rubble. Some expressed gratitude that they lost only their
homes and belongings, not their loved ones, as others had.
"There is no substitute for family," said Wissam Tabila, 35. "Everything
else can be replaced."
The Strait of Hormuz remains 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 in the war.
The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $97
Friday, up more than 30% since the war started.
Before the conflict, over 100 ships passed through the strait each 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 head 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
must 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 very poor job, dishonorable some would
say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz."
"That is not the agreement we have!" Trump wrote of the trickle of ships
Iran has allowed to pass.
The ceasefire deal is still 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 must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants
to remove Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could 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 enrich uranium is "necessary" for any ceasefire
talks.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, according to a top Iranian
medical official. Iran's government has not provided any definitive death toll
from the weekslong war.
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