 | Wars in the World |
Daily News on Wars in the World and on New States
| FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK X FLIPBOARD TELEGRAM |
The United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations Saturday in Pakistan, days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced, as the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets entered its seventh week.
The White House confirmed the direct nature of the talks, a rare instance of high-level U.S. government engagement with the Iranian government.
The U.S. has agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran proposed by Pakistan, President Trump said Tuesday night.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Tehran’s acceptance and said Iran would allow “safe passage” of the Strait of Hormuz during those two weeks “via coordination with Iran’s armed forces.”
Iran has fired missiles at the joint U.K.-U.S. Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean, claiming the strike shows it is capable of longer-distance attacks than previously known.
“Iran’s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies,” a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday, confirming the unsuccessful strike.
Israel is deploying additional forces and preparing for an expanded ground campaign to control southern Lebanese territory and dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, while Lebanon’s government remains engaged in diplomatic efforts to negotiate a ceasefire, Axios reported.
United States President Donald Trump has said the country’s military bombed military installations on Iran’s Kharg island, warning the area’s critical oil facilities could be next if Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran, in turn, threatened on Saturday to reduce US-linked oil facilities to “a pile of ashes” if oil structures on the island were attacked, as the US-Israel war on Iran, now in its punishing third week, spilled over into a global oil price crisis already in the making.