Two months after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran started the war, peace talks are on hold, with control of the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran’s nuclear program as the two main points of contention.
(Image credit: Vahid Salemi)
Two months after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran started the war, peace talks are on hold, with control of the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran’s nuclear program as the two main points of contention.
Iranian worshippers perform their Friday prayers under the portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (second left) and top military officials who were killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign, at the Tehran University campus, in Tehran, Iran, on April 24.
Vahid Salemi/AP
Vahid Salemi/AP
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signaled that efforts between the U.S. and Iran to end the war were deadlocked, amid growing international backlash over the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which has interrupted the world’s fuel supply and affected living costs globally.
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Rubio said the latest proposal by Iran was “better than what we thought they were going to submit.” But he said that the U.S. administration faced “a deeply fractured” leadership in Iran, complicating efforts to negotiate an end to the war.
Rubio indicated that no progress had been made on the U.S. demand for Iran to give up its nuclear ambition.
“That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here,” Rubio said in the interview.
“We can’t let them get away with it,” he said. “They’re very experienced negotiators, and we have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”
His comments came amid Iran’s diplomatic outreach to Russia, as Iranian officials sought to gain political leverage and foreign support. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, met on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who expressed his support for Iran in its war with the U.S. and Israel.
Araghchi also traveled to Oman and Pakistan for talks over the weekend. President Trump said he would send his envoys for talks in Islamabad, only to later cancel the U.S. delegation’s trip when Araghchi left.
Meanwhile, in a sign of the ongoing standoff in the strategic waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer blocked an Iranian oil tanker from sailing to an Iranian port, the U.S. Central Command said on social media on Monday.
In Lebanon, the U.S.-brokered ceasefire to pause the fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah looks increasingly fragile. Israel has carried out widespread strikes in the southern Lebanon and Hezbollah has fired several drones at Israeli troops.
A boat sails past a tanker anchored on the Strait of Hormuz off the coast Qeshm island, Iran, April 18.
Asghar Besharati/AP
Asghar Besharati/AP
Here are further developments in the Middle East conflict:
Strait of Hormuz | Lebanon | International reactions | Iraq’s new prime minister
Rubio says Iran’s attempt to control the Strait of Hormuz can’t be tolerated
Rubio also spoke against Iran’s attempt to control the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway through which about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes, primarily from Gulf countries to markets in Asia.
“They cannot normalize nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it,” he said.
Traffic has largely been at a standstill in the Strait of Hormuz since Iran moved to exert its control over the strait in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes. The U.S. has also imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, in a move aimed at increasing economic pressure on Iran to agree to Washington’s terms for an end to the war.
Israel and Hezbollah trade fire
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon appeared to be fraying on Tuesday as peace talks between the U.S. and Iran remained in flux.
Israel has carried out widespread strikes in Lebanon’s south as Hezbollah has fired several drones at Israeli troops.
Almost two weeks ago, the Israeli and Lebanese governments agreed on a ceasefire, with U.S. mediation, they said would pause the fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. Israel has ceased to strike areas around Beirut since then. But elsewhere in Lebanon, attacks have been ramping up from both sides. In southern Lebanon, many residents have had to evacuate their homes again.
Iran has previously demanded that Israel stop its attacks in Lebanon as a condition to continue negotiating with the U.S.
International backlash over the war in Iran
The prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is drawing increased criticism from world leaders, with some scrambling to deal with growing public discontent over high fuel prices that have pushed up living costs.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz blasted the U.S. administration on Monday for lacking a strategy in its war with Iran.
“The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either,” Merz told a student forum in the German town of Marsberg on Monday, according to Germany’s DPA news agency. “The problem with conflicts like this is always: you don’t just have to get in, you have to get out again.”
He said, “the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully — or simply very skillfully not negotiating.”
In this photo released by Tasnim News Agency, Revolutionary Guard Navy armed men climb aboard the cargo ship MSC Francesca during what state media described as the seizure of one of two vessels accused of violations in the Strait of Hormuz, on April 21.
Meysam Mirzadeh/Tasnim News Agency/AP
Meysam Mirzadeh/Tasnim News Agency/AP
“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” he added, according to Reuters.
His comments came as Bahrain, a U.S. ally and one of the Gulf countries that had its oil refineries attacked by Iranian drones, convened a high-level meeting at the United Nations to demand that Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz.
While most of the countries sided with Bahrain’s call, Russian and Chinese representatives blamed the blockade on the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. The Bahrain-sponsored statement did not mention the U.S. blockade of the passage.
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, began a diplomatic tour in Japan, China and South Korea to discuss “shared energy security” amid growing concerns of export controls by Asian countries.
“Of course I’m concerned about what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz and what’s happening in terms of Australia’s supplies. We are all concerned, which is why we are making sure we engage with the countries of the region,” she said Monday.
She said that Australia and the countries in the region, which get 80% of their oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz, have been “disproportionately affected.”
Iraqi leaders agree on a new prime minister
Iraqi political leaders have agreed on a new prime minister months after an election.
The prime minister designate, Ali al-Zaidi, a banker, is a political newcomer.
Zaidi is seen as a compromise candidate after President Trump rejected an Iran-backed former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to lead the country.
The U.S. controls Iraq’s supply of dollars and has used that as leverage.
Zaidi is a controversial pick who still faces hurdles before taking the job.
He headed an Iraqi bank that was among a group of financial institutions denied access to dollars two years ago, through the Iraqi banking system, due to concerns of money being channeled to Iran.
The Iraqi parliament has a month to approve Zaidi’s cabinet and program for him to form a government.
Kat Lonsdorf in Beirut, Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan, and Tina Kraja in Washington, D.C., contributed reporting to this story.
