Iran rejects US peace talks, Iranian media reports
Iran has reportedly rejected participation in a second round of peace talks with the US in Pakistan, citing “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”, according to the official IRNA news agency.
This follows reports that the White House planned to send a delegation, led by vice-president JD Vance, to renew negotiations in Islamabad on Monday.
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This follows reports that the White House planned to send a delegation, led by vice-president JD Vance, to renew negotiations in Islamabad on Monday.
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Within the course of an hour, the Trump administration has reversed course three times on whether JD Vance would be heading to Islamabad for the next round of Iran peace talks.
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Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told ABC News that the vice president would be leading the American delegation set to arrive in Islamabad on Monday.
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Donald Trump then came back to ABC News to say that Vance would not be going to Islamabad because of security issues – it was too short of a notice for Secret Service.
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The White House then told CNN that Vance will be going – “Things changed,” an official said – and in fact, Vance will be leading the delegation that includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
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Metropolitan police in London are investigating whether a series of arson attacks against Jewish sites were carried out by Iranian proxies.
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Speaking outside Kenton united synagogue in north-west London, the site of the latest arson attack, deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national co-ordinator for counter terrorism, said: “The nature of the incidents has been similar – arson attacks targeting Israeli- and Jewish-linked premises in London.
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“Most have been claimed online by the group Ashab al-Yamin (Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right).
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“This same group has claimed several incidents over recent months at places of worship, business and financial institutions across Europe. These locations all appear to be linked to Jewish or Israeli interests.”
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The Guardian’s Jamie Grierson has more.
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The US blockade of Iran’s ports is a violation of the ceasefire agreement and is “both unlawful and criminal”, Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said Sunday.
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“The United States’ so-called ‘blockade’ of Iran’s ports or coastline is not only a violation of Pakistani-mediated ceasefire but also both unlawful and criminal,” Baqaei posted on X.
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Baqaei also said the blockade was in violation of the UN Charter and constitutes an act of aggression.
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“Moreover, by deliberately inflicting collective punishment on the Iranian population, it amounts to war crime and crime against humanity,” Baqaei said.
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ABC News had previously reported that Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, had said that JD Vance was going to lead the American delegation in Islamabad this week.
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Donald Trump has since corrected that statement to say that the vice president would not be going to Pakistan. Trump said his representatives would be in Islamabad for peace talks on Monday night, but that Secret Service couldn’t arrange to accompany Vance there on such short notice.
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“It’s only because of security,” Trump said. “JD’s great.”
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Trump had earlier confirmed to Fox News and The New York Post that special enoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kusher, Trump’s son-in-law, would be going to Islamabad.
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Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday that this was Iran’s “last chance” to agree to a peace deal.
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“If Iran does not sign this deal, the whole country is getting blown up,” Trump said. The US president then reiterated his earlier point on Truth Social that the US would target bridges and power plants specifically if Iran does not sign this agreement.
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The deal entails reopening the strait of Hormuz and making sure Iranians do not have enriched uranium.
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Trump also made clear that he would not be “making the same mistake” that Barack Obama did with the 2015 agreement his administration made to limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities. In exchange for the lifting of some sanctions, Obama had conceded that Iran could contiune enriching its uranium for 15 years, but only at the level of purity required for a civilian nuclear programme. The agreement also included limiting Iran’s stockpile of uranium to 300kg.
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Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, calling the deal “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions” the US had ever entered into”.
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Since then, Iran has grown its stockpile to 400.9kg of uranium enriched to 60% uranium-235 – a level that can be quickly enriched to weapons-grade – 90%.
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Donald Trump told The New York Post that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will also be in Islamabad for the next round of peace talks with Iran.
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JD Vance will be leading the delegation, Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told ABC News.
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In that same post on Truth Social, Donald Trump bragged that the US blockade had already blocked the strait of Hormuz.
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“Iran recently announced that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our BLOCKADE has already closed it. They’re helping us without knowing, and they are the ones that lose with the closed passage, $500 Million Dollars a day! The United States loses nothing,” Trump wrote.
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JD Vance will lead the American delegration in Iran peace talks in Islamabad, Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told ABC News.
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Donald Trump on Sunday said his representatives were going to be in Islamabad on Monday night for more negotiations.
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Donald Trump said on Truth Social that his representatives were going to be in Islamabad on Monday night for more negotiations.
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“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” Trump wrote.
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Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Sunday to declare Iran in violation of the ceasefire agreement.
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Trump said the US was offering a “very fair and reasonable deal” and if Iran did not take it, he promised to knock out “every single Power Plant” and “every single Bridge”.
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“NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!” Trump wrote. “They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years.”
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Donald Trump told ABC News on Sunday that though Iran has committed a “serious violation” of the ceasefire, he still believes he can negotiate a peace deal.
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“It will happen. One way or another. The nice way or the hard way. It’s going to happen. You can quote me,” Trump told journalist Jonathan Karl.
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International flights will resume in Iran on Monday, the country’s civil aviation department has said.
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AFP reported a statement that had aired on state TV which said the Mashhad airport in the north-east of Iran would see flights arriving and departing tomorrow.
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The statement said: “Permission to operate international passenger flights at Mashhad Airport has been issued, starting tomorrow.”
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Iranian airports have been closed since the outbreak of war with Israel and the US on 28 February.
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Two tankers were turned around by Iran’s military as they tried to pass through the strait of Hormuz, the country’s news agency Tasmin has reported.
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Reuters reported that it came after the continuing US blockade on Iran.
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The vessels, sailing under the flags of Botswana and Angola, were forced to change course after what the report described as “unauthorised transit” through the strategic waterway.
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Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Saturday that the recent talks with the US had made progress but gaps remained over nuclear issues and the strait of Hormuz. “We have had progress but there is still a big distance between us,” he told state media, referring to talks last weekend. “We made progress in the negotiations, but there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain.”
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Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian weighed in on Sunday about Donald Trump and efforts to quash Iranian nuclear capabilities. “Trump says Iran cannot make use of its nuclear rights but doesn’t say for what crime. Who is he to deprive a nation of its rights?” Pezeshkian said.
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In more nuclear news, Iranian deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the Associated Press that contrary to Trump’s earlier claims, Iran will not hand over its enriched uranium to the US.
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In Lebanon, killing and destruction has continued despite a fragile ceasefire. An Israeli soldier was killed in southern Lebanon in an incident that severely wounded another soldiers and moderately injured four more, while another succombed on Saturday to injuries incured in another incident. Meanwhile, the state-run National News Agency is reporting that the Israeli military has demolished homes in the towns of Bayyada and Naqoura and have blocked roads leading to several towns. Lebanese state media also reported that Israeli forces on Saturday began demolishing homes in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil and other border towns where Israeli troops are present.
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Earlier, a UN peacekeeper was killed and three others were injured in an attack that UN secretary-general António Guterres has strongly condemned. Both Emmanuel Macron, president of France, and the group known as the UN Interim Force in Lebanon blamed Hezbollah, but the militant group has denied involvement.
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In Gaza, the Israeli military killed two Unicef-contracted truck drivers at a water point in the northern Gaza forcing the UN agency to suspend its operations in the area, Unicef said.
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Iranian journalists working in London say they fear for their lives after a recent spate of threats and physical attacks, which they blame on a Tehran regime intent on silencing Persian-language news media such as BBC Persian and Iran International.
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On Wednesday, the London offices of Iran International, a news channel that opposes the regime in Tehran, were the target of an attempted arson attack, with an “ignited container” thrown into the car park of a neighbouring building, according to the Metropolitan police.
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Speaking after the attack, one journalist at Iran International says violence had become normalised to staff. “Our minds are ignoring these ugly things automatically.
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“Today, our British staff said to us, ‘How brave you are, bravo!’ But to tell you the truth, what really happens is that we are fucked up. We’ve tricked our brains into normalising these threats and not fearing at all because otherwise we will need to go to the mental hospital.”
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Tom Levitt, Deepa Parent and Maryam Foumani have the story:
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UN secretary-general António Guterres has strongly condemned the killing of a French peacekeeper and the wounding of three others in an attack in southern Lebanon, spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement to the Associated Press.
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The UN peacekeeping force came under attack with small-arms fire on Saturday morning, with two of the injured hurt seriously, France’s president and the force known as UNIFIL said.
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Both Emmanuel Macron, president of France, and the group known as the UN Interim Force in Lebanon blamed Hezbollah, but the militant group has denied involvement.
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A set of mismanaged and premature media announcements by Donald Trump and Tehran has led to the collapse of progress towards a peace settlement between Iran and the US.
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The recent missteps ended with Iran saying it would reinstate a complete block on the movement of commercial shipping through the strait of Hormuz and that it would not allow any of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to be exported out of the country.
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Iran will not hand over its enriched uranium to the US, Iranian deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the Associated Press, despite earlier claims made by Donald Trump.
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On Friday, Trump said that Washington would work with Tehran to recover Iran’s enriched uranium to bring back to the US.
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“I can tell you that no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States,” Khatibzadeh said. “This is non-starter and I can assure you that while we are ready to address any concerns that we do have, we’re not going to accept things that are nonstarters.”
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In that same interview, Khatibzadeh accused the US of holding firm on demands Iran deems to be excessive.
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“We are still not there yet to move on to an actual meeting because there are issues that the Americans have not yet abandoned their maximalist position,” Khatibzadeh said.
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Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian was quoted in the state-affiliated Iranian Student News Agency on Sunday about Donald Trump and efforts to quash Iranian nuclear capabilities, Reuters reports.
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“Trump says Iran cannot make use of its nuclear rights but doesn’t say for what crime. Who is he to deprive a nation of its rights?” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying.
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Welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East.
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Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Saturday that the recent talks with the US had made progress but gaps remained over nuclear issues and the strait of Hormuz. “We have had progress but there is still a big distance between us,” he told state media, referring to talks last weekend. “We made progress in the negotiations, but there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain.”
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President Donald Trump said the US was having “very good conversations” with Tehran but warned against “blackmail” over the key shipping channel. He later praised war ally Israel in a social media post, adding that other allies had “shown their true colours in a moment of conflict and stress”.
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It comes after Iranian officials reversed the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and reimposed restrictions on the vital shipping lane after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iranian ports.
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A UK maritime agency reported that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ships had fired at a tanker as it attempted to pass through the strait on Saturday. Reuters reported an Indian-flagged vessel carrying crude oil had also been attacked while in the waterway.
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Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said on Saturday that Tehran had restored the strait to its “previous status” and was now “under strict management and control by the armed forces”.
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Trump convened a White House Situation Room meeting on Saturday morning to discuss the renewed crisis according to reporting from Axios. A senior US official said that unless there is a breakthrough in peace talks, it appears that the war could reopen within days.
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president Donald Trump arrives at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling “,”caption”:”US president Donald Trump arrives at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, on Saturday.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
In other developments:
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After the initial talks between the US and Iran last weekend in Pakistan, the Iranian deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said a second date cannot be set until both sides “have agreed on the framework”.
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Iran’s supreme national security council, the country’s highest decision-making body under the supreme leader, said it is reviewing “new proposals” put forward by the US, according to Iranian media.
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Hezbollah has denied it was involved in the deadly attack against UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, which killed a French soldier. A UN peacekeeper was killed and three others were injured after a patrol came under attack from “non-state actors”, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon said.
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Israeli forces on Saturday began demolishing homes in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil and other border towns where Israeli troops are present, Lebanese state media reported.
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The Israeli military killed two Unicef-contracted truck drivers at a water point in the northern Gaza Strip, forcing the UN agency to suspend its operations in the area, Unicef said.
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Pope Leo XIV said that it is “not in my interest at all” to debate Trump about the Iran war, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace.
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Trump left the White House Saturday afternoon to play golf, despite Iran’s re-closure of the strait of Hormuz in response to the US blockade of Iranian ports.
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Key events
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Patrick Wintour
Donald Trump’s decision to send US officials to Islamabad for further talks on Monday with Iran just 24 hours after Iran once again closed the strait of Hormuz will signal to Tehran that the strategic waterway remains a bargaining asset beyond parallel.
It will also confirm in Iran’s eyes that the US president’s chaotic approach to diplomacy doubles the need for Tehran to act calmly and strategically – two competencies it believes he totally lacks.
Such is the distrust and fog surrounding relations between Iran and the US that no one can know whether Trump – after meetings in the Situation Room on Saturday – has once again decided to use diplomacy as a giant smokescreen prior to a further military attack on Iran once the ceasefire expires on Wednesday.
At a minimum it is undeniable that the run-up to a proposed second round of talks in Islamabad has been far from propitious, partly because an impatient Trump repeatedly misunderstands the need to proceed sequentially or take account of the sensitivities on the Iranian side. Iranian state media reported on Sunday evening that Tehran had not yet decided whether to join.
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Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday, according to a statement from Sharif’s office.
It says that during the 45-minute phone call, the two leaders “engaged in detailed exchanges on the current regional situation”. Sharif thanked Pezeshkian for sending a delegation to talks in Islamabad earlier this month. The statement did not mention future peace talks with the US.
“The Prime Minister reaffirmed that, with the support of friends and partners, Pakistan would remain fully committed to its honest and sincere efforts to advance regional peace and security,” the statement said.
Mahmoud Nabavian, an Iranian member of the Parliament who was part of the delegation for recent talks between Washington and Tehran in Islamabad, has warned of a “renewed military operation” against Iran.
“The entry of enemy equipment into the region under the pretext of Iran’s maritime blockade, like the negotiation process and the claim of the war’s end, is nothing more than a deception, and it appears the enemy is seeking renewed military operations,” he wrote on social media.
In another post, he shared a screenshot of Trump’s post on Truth Social where the US president threatened to “knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran”.
Nabavian responded that Trump “has once again spouted nonsense and threatened the dear people of Iran”.
He added: “Know this, if there is any aggression against the Iranian nation, we will destroy all economic interests and infrastructure belonging to America, the regional energy, and the Zionist regime.”
Iran rejects US peace talks, Iranian media reports
Iran has reportedly rejected participation in a second round of peace talks with the US in Pakistan, citing “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”, according to the official IRNA news agency.
This follows reports that the White House planned to send a delegation, led by vice-president JD Vance, to renew negotiations in Islamabad on Monday.
Israeli fire on Sunday has killed one Palestinian and wounded three others in central Gaza, health officials told the Associated Press.
Palestinians in Gaza have reported that Israeli strikes have intensified over the past few days across the enclave. Since a fragile ceasefire deal was reached in October, deadly Israeli strikes have continued to be a constant threat in Gaza. Gaza’s health ministry reports that more than 775 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began.
The Israeli military published for the first time a map of its new deployment line inside Lebanon on Sunday, bringing dozens of mostly abandoned Lebanese villages under its control, days after a ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect.
Stretching east to west, the deployment line on the map runs 5-10km (about 3-6 miles) deep from the border into Lebanese territory, where Israel has said that it plans to create a so-called buffer zone. Israeli forces have destroyed Lebanese villages in the area, saying their aim is to protect northern Israeli towns from Hezbollah attacks. It has created buffer zones in Syria and in Gaza, where it controls more than half the enclave.
“Five divisions, alongside Israeli Navy forces, are operating simultaneously south of the forward defense line in southern Lebanon in order to dismantle Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites and to prevent direct threats to communities in northern Israel,” the military said in a statement accompanying the map.
Israel and Lebanon agreed on Thursday to the US-backed ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The deal, which followed the first direct talks in decades between Israel and Lebanon on 14 April, is meant to enable broader US-Iran negotiations but with Israeli forces maintaining positions deep inside southern Lebanon.
Iran currently has not made a decision on whether to send a negotiating delegation to Pakistan “as long as there is a naval blockade”, Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim reported.
Yesterday, Iranian officials reversed the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and reimposed restrictions on the vital shipping lane after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iranian ports. Iranian officials have maintained that the US blockade of Iran’s ports is a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
The US energy secretary has said that petrol prices are expected to remain high due to the fallout from the war on Iran, CNN reports.
Chris Wright spoke to the network and said he believes that gas prices have “likely peaked” but may not reach below $3 gallon “until next year”.
“Gas below $3 a gallon could happen later this year, that might not happen until next year. But prices have likely peaked, and they’ll start going down,” he said.
The national average currently stands at $4.05 per gallon, which is significantly higher than a year ago.
White House says Vance actually is going to Islamabad
Within the course of an hour, the Trump administration has reversed course three times on whether JD Vance would be heading to Islamabad for the next round of Iran peace talks.
Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told ABC News that the vice president would be leading the American delegation set to arrive in Islamabad on Monday.
Donald Trump then came back to ABC News to say that Vance would not be going to Islamabad because of security issues – it was too short of a notice for Secret Service.
The White House then told CNN that Vance will be going – “Things changed,” an official said – and in fact, Vance will be leading the delegation that includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
London police investigating possibile Iranian proxy involvement in attacks against Jewish sites
Metropolitan police in London are investigating whether a series of arson attacks against Jewish sites were carried out by Iranian proxies.
Speaking outside Kenton united synagogue in north-west London, the site of the latest arson attack, deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national co-ordinator for counter terrorism, said: “The nature of the incidents has been similar – arson attacks targeting Israeli- and Jewish-linked premises in London.
“Most have been claimed online by the group Ashab al-Yamin (Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right).
“This same group has claimed several incidents over recent months at places of worship, business and financial institutions across Europe. These locations all appear to be linked to Jewish or Israeli interests.”
The Guardian’s Jamie Grierson has more.
Mohammad Ishaq Dar, the deputy prime minister of Pakistan, spoke on Sunday with Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran.
The phone call included discussion on “the need for continued dialogue and engagement as essential to resolving the current issues as soon as possible for promoting the peace and stability in the region and beyond”, according to Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs.
Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, is slated to have a phone call with Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, later today as well.
These phone conversations took place as Donald Trump confirmed that a US delegation would be in Islamabad on Monday for another round of peace talks regarding the conflict in Iran.
Iran foreign ministry: US blockade violates ceasefire and ‘amounts to war crime’
The US blockade of Iran’s ports is a violation of the ceasefire agreement and is “both unlawful and criminal”, Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said Sunday.
“The United States’ so-called ‘blockade’ of Iran’s ports or coastline is not only a violation of Pakistani-mediated ceasefire but also both unlawful and criminal,” Baqaei posted on X.
Baqaei also said the blockade was in violation of the UN Charter and constitutes an act of aggression.
“Moreover, by deliberately inflicting collective punishment on the Iranian population, it amounts to war crime and crime against humanity,” Baqaei said.
JD Vance is not going to Islamabad, Trump says
ABC News had previously reported that Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, had said that JD Vance was going to lead the American delegation in Islamabad this week.
Donald Trump has since corrected that statement to say that the vice president would not be going to Pakistan. Trump said his representatives would be in Islamabad for peace talks on Monday night, but that Secret Service couldn’t arrange to accompany Vance there on such short notice.
“It’s only because of security,” Trump said. “JD’s great.”
Trump had earlier confirmed to Fox News and The New York Post that special enoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kusher, Trump’s son-in-law, would be going to Islamabad.
Trump says ‘whole country is getting blown up’ if Iran does not accept deal
Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday that this was Iran’s “last chance” to agree to a peace deal.
“If Iran does not sign this deal, the whole country is getting blown up,” Trump said. The US president then reiterated his earlier point on Truth Social that the US would target bridges and power plants specifically if Iran does not sign this agreement.
The deal entails reopening the strait of Hormuz and making sure Iranians do not have enriched uranium.
Trump also made clear that he would not be “making the same mistake” that Barack Obama did with the 2015 agreement his administration made to limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities. In exchange for the lifting of some sanctions, Obama had conceded that Iran could contiune enriching its uranium for 15 years, but only at the level of purity required for a civilian nuclear programme. The agreement also included limiting Iran’s stockpile of uranium to 300kg.
Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, calling the deal “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions” the US had ever entered into”.
Since then, Iran has grown its stockpile to 400.9kg of uranium enriched to 60% uranium-235 – a level that can be quickly enriched to weapons-grade – 90%.
Report: Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to join American delegation in Islamabad
Donald Trump told The New York Post that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will also be in Islamabad for the next round of peace talks with Iran.
JD Vance will be leading the delegation, Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told ABC News.
