Paris (France) (AFP) – The latest developments in the Middle East war:
– **Pakistan ‘committed’ to role**
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he had spoken by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian after US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad were called off. “Pakistan remains committed to serve as an honest and sincere facilitator – working tirelessly to advance durable peace and lasting stability in the region,” Sharif wrote on X.
– **Israel orders attacks on Hezbollah**
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to strike Lebanon’s Hezbollah hard after what the army said was a string of ceasefire violations.
– **US ‘truly serious’?**
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that it remained to be seen whether the United States was “truly serious about diplomacy,” after a visit to Pakistan where he met with senior officials.
– **Trump cancels envoys’ Pakistan trip**
US President Donald Trump told Fox News he had ordered his envoys not to travel to Pakistan to continue talks with Iranian officials on ending the war. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said: “There is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’ Nobody knows who is in charge, including them.” Trump said the move did not mean a restart of the war.
– **Six killed in Lebanon**
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed six people in the country’s south, despite a ceasefire that was extended this week in the war between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
– **German minesweeper**
Germany will soon send a minesweeper to the Mediterranean for a possible mission in the Strait of Hormuz after the end of the US-Iran war, a defence ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
– **US ‘quagmire’**
The United States “is looking for a face-saving way to escape the war quagmire it has become trapped in,” a spokesman for Iran’s defence ministry said. Iran’s military also warned it would respond if the US maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, calling it “banditry.”
– **Iran execution**
Iran extended its long series of executions carried out during the war with the capital punishment of a man its judiciary said had carried out a “mission” on behalf of Israel’s spy agency during mass protests in January.
– **Kuwait frees journalist**
An American-Kuwaiti journalist has been released after being held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war, a US State Department official said. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to The New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on March 3 for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security, and misusing his mobile phone.
© 2024 AFP
