Two explosions struck a cargo vessel in the Gulf about 40 nautical miles southeast of Iraq’s Umm Qasr, one of which was caused by a drone attack, Iraqi officials said on Monday.
Tag: Middle East
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he spoke with Iran-aligned Lebanese militia group Hezbollah through intermediaries and secured a pledge that it would not attack Israel.
The medieval Beaufort Castle’s stone ramparts tower so far above south Lebanon that Israel could hail their capture as a strategic victory, even as it evoked the miseries of a previous occupation.
Iran is pushing for a limited interim agreement with the United States in a bid to ease mounting economic pressure and stabilise the situation at home, while avoiding major concessions on its nuclear programme, according to sources and analysts.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency said on Monday that Tehran’s negotiating team is stopping exchanges of messages with the United States through mediators due to attacks on Lebanon, as diplomatic efforts to end the three-month-old Iran war continue.
Iran on Monday blamed the slow pace of efforts to end the U.S.-Iran conflict on a lack of trust, contradictory positions from Washington and continued Israeli attacks in the region.
Israeli troops and Hezbollah have continued to trade fire since a mid-April ceasefire.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and has proposed a plan to allow for “gradual de-escalation,” a U.S. official said on Sunday.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least two Palestinians and wounded 12 on Sunday at a Gaza cafe that was packed with people celebrating public holidays, health officials said.
The United Nations on Friday added Israel and Russia to a U.N. blacklist of countries suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict zones, a move that prompted Israel’s foreign ministry to say it would sever all ties with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.