Paris (France) (AFP) – The latest developments in the Middle East war:
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he “welcomes” US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 10-day ceasefire with Israel, which was due to start at 2100 GMT on Thursday evening. A Hezbollah MP told AFP the Iran-backed militant group would respect the ceasefire if Israel stops its attacks on its fighters.
Trump said he will invite the leaders of Israel and Lebanon to the White House after the two countries agreed to a ceasefire. “I will be inviting the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, and the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, to the White House,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire starting on Thursday, Trump said after speaking to Netanyahu and Aoun. “These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE at 5 P.M. EST,” Trump said on his Truth Social network, without mentioning Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
Pakistan’s powerful army chief met Iran’s parliament speaker in Tehran, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met the Qatari ruler in Doha. Pakistan hosted and mediated the first round of US-Iran talks to end the war and is pushing for a second.
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the new leader of the world’s Anglicans, hailed Pope Leo XIV’s “courageous call” for peace following a war of words with US President Donald Trump. “I stand with my brother in Christ, His Holiness Pope XIV, in his courageous call for a kingdom of peace. As innocent people are killed and displaced, families torn apart, and futures destroyed, the human cost of war is incalculable,” Mullally said.
Israel’s defence minister warned Iran against rejecting a US proposal focused on renouncing “nuclear armament” and vowed to stage “even more painful” strikes on new targets if it did so. “Iran is standing at a historic crossroads: one path is renouncing the ways of terror and nuclear armament…in line with the US proposal, the other leads to an abyss,” Israel Katz said. “If the Iranian regime chooses the second path, it will quickly discover there are even more painful targets than those we have already struck,” he said.
Iran was the top exporter of commodities through the Strait of Hormuz in March, as shipments from other countries fell off a cliff with Tehran’s blockade of the vital waterway, data by analytics firm Kpler showed.
The United States will blockade Iranian ports for “as long as it takes,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, threatening renewed strikes if Tehran does not make a deal. “If Iran chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy,” Hegseth said.
UK government officials have drawn up contingency plans for possible food shortages caused by a scarcity of carbon dioxide if the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, a report said. A secret government analysis envisaged shortages of CO2, which is critical to the food industry, unless Iran and the United States reach an agreement to open the vital waterway, The Times daily reported.
© 2024 AFP
