Washington (United States) (AFP) – Israel said it was open to peace with Lebanon ahead of the first direct talks in decades between the neighbors Tuesday, but that Hezbollah remained the “problem” blocking an agreement on ending fighting. The United States is pressing for a halt to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, fearing it could derail the two-week ceasefire in Washington’s war with Iran, despite talks with Tehran in Pakistan failing to achieve a breakthrough. Washington said “the ball is in the Iranian court” on ending the region-wide war, after a US naval blockade on Iranian ports began in the Strait of Hormuz, which had already been effectively closed by Tehran.
Lebanon was pulled into the broader conflict when Hezbollah attacked Israel, sparking an Israeli ground invasion and strikes — including an extremely heavy attack on Beirut on April 8 — that have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced over one million. Tuesday’s meeting in Washington — the first such in-person talks since 1993 — will be mediated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and include the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States. Expectations of any major breakthroughs were low, with Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem calling for the talks to be scrapped before they even began, describing them as “futile”.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said his country was seeking “peace and normalization” with Lebanon. But he insisted that Hezbollah was the “problem”, and that it needed to be addressed in order to move to a “different phase”. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has said he hopes a truce deal can be agreed and full-blown negotiations launched between the two countries, which have technically been at war for decades and don’t have official diplomatic relations.
While attention switched to the meeting on the war between Hezbollah and Israel, Trump sought to squeeze Iran with a naval blockade as diplomatic efforts accelerated towards a new round of peace talks with Tehran. US Central Command had said the measures covered “vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas”. But at least two ships using Iranian ports passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, data from maritime tracking firm Kpler indicated Tuesday. Iran’s military command branded the blockade an act of piracy and warned that if the security of its harbors was “threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea will be safe”.
With his blockade of Iranian ports, Trump was trying to starve Iran of funds but also pressure Beijing, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, to lean on Tehran to reopen Hormuz, analysts said. China said the blockade was “dangerous and irresponsible”, after Trump threatened to sink any boats that sought to leave or dock at Iranian ports. The standoff at the strait, through which one-fifth of global oil transited in peacetime, failed to dampen optimism in global markets, with Asian equities rallying while oil continued a downward slide.
France said it would co-host a video conference with Britain on Friday of countries ready to contribute to a “purely defensive mission” to secure the Strait of Hormuz. Crucially, despite the blockade, the fragile two-week truce agreed last Wednesday between Washington and Tehran remained in place. Trump insisted that Iranian representatives had called Washington since a US delegation returned empty-handed from negotiations in Islamabad. “I can tell you that we’ve been called by the other side. They’d like to make a deal. Very badly, very badly,” he told reporters outside the Oval Office.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday that “full efforts are underway” to reach an agreement to stop the fighting and that the US-Iran ceasefire was “holding”. On Tuesday, senior Pakistani sources told AFP that Islamabad was working to bring Iran and the United States together for a second round of talks. Iranian state TV reported that Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran “will continue to talk only within the framework of international law” in a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. Macron said he urged Pezeshkian and Trump to resume stalled talks towards ending the Iran war.
Trump has insisted that an agreement must include stopping Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon, having launched the war after accusing Tehran of developing an atomic bomb — an allegation it denies. During weekend talks, the United States reportedly sought a 20-year suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, according to media reports on Monday. Iran in turn proposed to suspend its nuclear activity for five years, which US officials rejected, The New York Times reported.
Diplomatic efforts were also picking up elsewhere, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Beijing on Tuesday, hours after Iran’s state news agency reported he had spoken with his Iranian counterpart. Moscow has offered to hold Iran’s enriched uranium safely as part of any deal. Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed Tuesday that Beijing would play a “constructive role” in promoting peace talks in the Middle East.
© 2024 AFP
