(AFP) – The latest developments in the Middle East war:
– **Countdown to US Gulf blockade**
The US military said Sunday it will blockade all Iranian Gulf ports on Monday at 1400 GMT, effectively seizing control of maritime traffic in the critical Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway responsible for distribution of a fifth of the global oil supply. “The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” US Central Command said in a post on X, adding the US would “not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.” The post clarified earlier social media threats from US President Donald Trump that “any and all Ships” would be affected.
– **Iran ‘will not bow’ to threats**
Iran’s parliament speaker, who led peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, said his country would not give in after Trump’s earlier threats to blockade the strait. “If they fight, we will fight, and if they come forward with logic, we will deal with logic,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, cited by several Iranian news agencies. “We will not bow to any threats, let them test our will once again so that we can teach them a bigger lesson.”
– **Lebanon working for Israeli withdrawal**
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he was working to stop the Israel-Hezbollah war and to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces. “We will continue to work to stop this war, to ensure the Israeli withdrawal from all our lands, the return of all the prisoners, to rebuild our destroyed villages and towns, and the safe return of the displaced,” said Salam.
– **Netanyahu says threat of invasion removed**
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting troops who invaded southern Lebanon, said Israeli forces had eliminated the threat of an invasion by Hezbollah militants. “The war continues, including within the security zone in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office.
– **Israeli tank rams UN vehicles**
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said an Israeli tank twice rammed peacekeeping vehicles in the country’s south where Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since last month. Israeli soldiers had also blocked a road in south Lebanon’s Bayada “that is used to access UNIFIL positions,” it said in a statement.
– **Trump orders blockade**
Earlier Sunday, Trump said in a social media post he had ordered the US navy block to “interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.”
– **Iran responds to blockade threat**
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said after Trump’s announcement that Iranian security forces had full control over the Strait of Hormuz and warned enemies would be trapped in a “deadly vortex” in case of any “wrong move.” Iran’s navy chief Shahram Irani called Trump’s threat “ridiculous and funny,” according to state TV, adding the country’s military is “monitoring and supervising all the movements of the aggressive American army in the region.”
– **Lebanon deaths**
Lebanese official media reported extensive Israeli strikes across the country’s south as the health ministry said at least five people were killed and the war’s overall toll on that front rose to 2,055 dead. Israel insists the current Middle East ceasefire does not apply to its military operations in Lebanon targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah.
– **Trump threatens China**
Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the United States if Beijing helped Iran militarily, in comments to Fox News.
– **Iran toll**
Abbas Masjedi, head of the Iranian judiciary’s Legal Medicine Organization, said 3,375 people in Iran have been killed in the war with the United States and Israel. Due to reporting restrictions, AFP is not able to access the sites of strikes nor independently verify tolls in Iran.
– **Ceasefire plea, mediation offer**
The foreign minister of Pakistan, whose country mediated the weekend talks, called for the two-week ceasefire agreed by Washington and Tehran to be upheld. Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that he was ready to help mediate peace efforts, the Kremlin said.
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© 2024 AFP
