Main developments
Lebanon and Israel have agreed to hold talks next week in Washington, marking the first direct talks between the two enemy states in more than four decades.
US vice-president JD Vance said he expected “positive” talks with Iran in Pakistan on Saturday. Iranian officials arrived in Pakistan for negotiations with the US.
Hizbollah chief Naim Qassem has vowed that the militant group will continue fighting and said Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon was failing.
Israel said it would continue to expand its operations in Lebanon, with the head of the Israeli military saying its campaign against Hizbollah was the army’s “primary operational focus”.
US President Donald Trump warned Iran against charging fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, adding that Tehran’s handling of traffic was “not the agreement we have”.
Only a handful of ships have passed through the strait since the two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday.
US inflation rose to 3.3 per cent in March, the highest since May 2024, fuelled by a surge in petrol prices as the impact of the Iran war ricocheted across the world’s biggest economy.
US stocks recorded their biggest weekly gain since November, while oil prices remained below $100 a barrel.
Chinese producer prices rose in March for the first time since 2022, as the energy shock hit the world’s second-largest economy.
Iran does not trust US but is ready to make agreement says Tehran’s lead negotiator
Iran does not trust the US but is ready to make an agreement, its lead negotiator has said ahead of crucial talks set to take place on Saturday.
“We have good intentions but we do not have trust,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament Speaker said as he landed in Pakistan, in comments reported by Iranian state media.
If US officials were ready to make an agreement and “give the rights of the Iranian people” then “they will see readiness from us to agree,” he said, while also pointing out that twice in less than a year the US has attacked Iran in the middle of negotiations.
Lebanon and Israel agree to talks in Washington next week, says Beirut
Lebanon and Israel have agreed to hold talks on Tuesday in Washington to discuss “announcing a ceasefire and setting a date to begin negotiations between the two states”, Lebanon’s president said in a post on X.
This would mark the first direct talks between the two enemy states, which have never had diplomatic relations, in more than four decades.
It comes after Israel intensified its assault against Hizbollah with a massive bombing campaign across Lebanon that threatened to undermine the US ceasefire with Iran.
Friday evening’s announcement followed a call between Lebanon and Israel’s ambassadors to Washington that was overseen by the US envoy to Lebanon.
A US state department official said it would host a meeting next week “to discuss ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Israel and Lebanon” but it had “nothing further to share at this time”.