(AFP) – The latest developments in the Middle East war:
– **Israeli soldier killed**
Israel’s military said a soldier died during combat in southern Lebanon, where fighting has not stopped despite a temporary ceasefire. It was the second death of a soldier announced by Israel since the start of a 10-day truce announced by the United States began on Friday — part of wider efforts to bring a permanent end to the Middle East war. The total Israeli army death toll in the six-week war between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon is now 15, according to an AFP tally based on military figures.
– **Hormuz closed**
The strategic Strait of Hormuz remained closed on Sunday, a day after Iran’s central military command announced a new closure in response to a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. On Friday, Iran had declared the strait — where around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually transits — open after the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire announcement. Oil prices plunged amid elation in global markets. But President Donald Trump insisted the U.S. naval blockade would continue until a deal to end the wider war was concluded, leading Tehran to again close the strait — a measure Trump called “blackmail.”
– **Iran says negotiations far from final**
Progress had been made in negotiations with the United States to end the war, Iran’s parliamentary speaker said on Saturday, but the two sides remain far from an agreement. “We are still far from the final discussion,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of Iran’s negotiators, said in a televised address. “We made progress in the negotiations, but there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain.”
– **Iran’s death toll**
Iran’s state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying the war with the United States and Israel had left 3,468 people dead in the country.
– **UN chief condemns peacekeeper death**
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned an attack on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon that left a French soldier dead and three wounded. France blamed the attack on Hezbollah, and Guterres said, in a statement issued by his spokesman, that an initial assessment by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was that it was carried out by the Iran-backed group. Hezbollah has denied accusations that it was involved.
– **Israel hits Lebanon**
The Israeli military said Saturday its air force had eliminated a “terrorist cell” operating near its troops in southern Lebanon, despite the ceasefire there. Israeli forces also carried out demolitions in Lebanese towns near the border, including Bint Jbeil, the scene of intense fighting with Hezbollah prior to the ceasefire, Lebanese state media reported.
– **Iran navy warning**
“We warn that no ship, of any kind, should leave its anchorage in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy said in a statement on its official Sepah News website. “Any attempt to approach the Strait of Hormuz will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted.”
– **No one-sided truce**
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said Saturday the 10-day truce with Israel cannot be one-sided, vowing that his fighters would respond to Israeli attacks on Lebanon. “Because we do not trust this enemy, the resistance fighters will remain in the field with their hands on the trigger, and they will respond to violations accordingly,” Qassem said in a statement read out on TV. “There is no ceasefire from the side of the resistance only, it must be from both sides.”
© 2024 AFP
