Middle East crisis live: Trump casts doubt on Iran war ceasefire over continued closure of strait of Hormuz

SummaryWelcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.The fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran showed further strain on Friday, a day before delegations from both countries are due to meet in Pakistan, as Donald Trump accused Tehran of breaching promises on the strait of Hormuz and Israel struck Lebanon with attacks that Iran claims violate the truce.Trump said in a social media post late Thursday that Iran was doing a “very poor job” of allowing oil to go through the strait. “That is not the agreement we have!”There is no sign Iran is lifting its near-total blockade of the strait, which has caused the worst-ever disruption to global energy supplies. Tehran cited Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon, which included the heaviest strikes of the war on Wednesday, as a key sticking point.Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz. Photograph: ReutersIn the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, which Trump announced on Tuesday, just a single oil products tanker and five dry bulk carriers sailed through the strait, which typically carries a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows and 140 ships a day before the war. Donald Trump has said he is “very optimistic” a peace deal with Iran was within reach as a diplomatic delegation led by his vice-president JD Vance prepared to head to Pakistan for high-stakes talks aimed at ending the war this weekend. Iran’s leaders “talk much differently when you’re at a meeting than they do to the press. They’re much more reasonable,” the US president said, in line with his administration’s narrative that there’s a disconnect between what Tehran says publicly and privately. Trump also confirmed that he had asked Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to be “more low-key” in Lebanon to help ensure the success of the upcoming US-Iran negotiations in Islamabad. “I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,” Trump told NBC News, adding that he believed Israel was “scaling back” its operations in Lebanon. Netanyahu said he had instructed his cabinet to begin direct negotiations with Lebanon aimed at disarming Hezbollah – all the while insisting that “there is no ceasefire” in Lebanon and that Israel will “continue to strike Hezbollah with force”. Israel has since launched a fresh wave of strikes against what it called “Hezbollah launch sites” in Lebanon, after the IDF earlier ordered people to flee Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs. Later in the day, Hezbollah said it had fired a rocket salvo towards northern Israeli settlements. While Israel continues to insist that the war will go on and “talks will be held under fire”, Lebanon is demanding a ceasefire before direct negotiations can begin. Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, said this was “the only solution”. Lebanon is also insisting that it needs the US as a mediator and guarantor of any agreement. Those talks will take place next week, hosted by the US state department in Washington. Iran’s ⁠president ⁠Masoud Pezeshkian said ⁠Israeli strikes on ⁠Lebanon violate the ceasefire agreement and would render ‌negotiations meaningless, adding that Iran would not abandon the Lebanese people. The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Lebanon forms “an inseparable part of the ceasefire” deal. In a post on X, he said “there is no room for denial and backtracking”. Keir Starmer also said that Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon “shouldn’t be happening”. The British prime minister also dismissed an argument put forward by US vice-president JD Vance on Wednesday that there had been “a legitimate misunderstanding”, saying the issue “isn’t a technical one of whether it’s a breach of the agreement or not”. It is “a matter of principles as far as I’m concerned”, Starmer said. A statement attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said Iran will take management of the strait of Hormuz into a new phase, but did not elaborate on what that would be. In the statement, read out on state tv, he also said Iran remains determined to “take revenge” for his father, who was assassinated on the first day of the war, and all those killed in the war. “We will certainly demand compensation for each and every damage inflicted, and the blood price of the martyrs and the compensation for the wounded of this war,” he said. ShareUpdated at 08.06 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureThe Israeli military has repeated the claim that Hezbollah is using ambulances for military purposes.In a post on X, Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), accused Hezbollah of making “extensive military use” of ambulances, without providing evidence.A few weeks ago, my colleague, William Christou, spoke to medics in Lebanon, visited destroyed medical centres and inspected damaged ambulances to explore the IDF’s claim. He found that none of the sites showed signs of military use. Lebanese healthcare workers and officials say Israel is deliberately targeting medical workers and facilities, including through the use of double-tap strikes. You can read the report here:ShareSpain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said he urged his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, to negotiate “in good faith” during talks with the US in Islamabad.Albares said he spoke to Araghchi “the day before yesterday” and had asked him to halt “all missile and drone launches”.“I encourage Iran – this is what I conveyed to the Iranian foreign minister – to take part in those negotiations and to participate in good faith,” he said, according to the AFP news agency.He again condemned Israel over its continued strikes on Lebanon, saying the attacks were a “disgrace on the conscience of humanity”.He added: “The level of violence, the violation of international law and international humanitarian law by Israel is unacceptable.”ShareUK defence minister Luke Pollard said there is no truth in Donald Trump’s claims that the Royal Navy is “too old” and that its aircraft carriers “don’t work” and are “toys”.“We’ve got a strong Royal Navy,” he told BBC Breakfast.“HMS Sutherland, the Type 23 frigate behind me here, is crewed by brilliant men and women. We’ve got a globally deployed navy at the moment.”Pollard added that the UK has a “unique convening role” that it can use to bring its friends and allies together to work out solutions to reopen the strait of Hormuz.SharePakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, has deleted a post on X in which he called Israel “cancerous” and a “curse for humanity”.The post appeared on X last night but has since been deleted, Reuters news agency reported.In the post, Asif wrote that as “peace talks are underway in Islamabad, genocide is being committed in Lebanon”. He added that “innocent citizens are being killed by Israel, first Gaza, then Iran and now Lebanon, bloodletting continues unabated”.The Israeli prime minister’s office said the remarks were “outrageous”. In a post on X, it said: “This is not a statement that can be tolerated from any government, especially not from one that claims to be a neutral arbiter for peace.”ShareIsraeli military chief: 'IDF is in a state of war'The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said Israeli forces are continuing their combat operations in southern Lebanon and are “not in a ceasefire” with Hezbollah, according to remarks released by the IDF.During a visit near Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, Zamir said: double quotation markThe IDF is in a state of war, we are not in a ceasefire, we continue to fight here in this sector, this is our main fighting sector. In Iran, we are in a ceasefire, and we can return to fighting there at any moment, and in a very powerful manner. An intense wave of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Wednesday killed more than 300 people, according to Lebanese authorities, making it the deadliest day for the country since the recent bout of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on 2 March.Several world leaders, including the UK, have condemned Israel’s strikes and have called for Lebanon to be included in the US-Iran ceasefire.ShareVolodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian teams deployed to the Middle East to bolster air defences in the region have shot down Iranian Shahed drones.“We demonstrated to some countries how to work with interceptors,” the Ukrainian president said in a post on X.“Did we destroy Iranian “shaheds?” Yes, we did. Did we do it in just one country? No, in several. And in my view, this is a success.”Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces took part in active operations using domestically produced, battle-tested interceptor drones.“This was not about a training mission or exercises, but about support in building a modern air defence system that can actually work,” he added.ShareIranian officials arrive in Islamabad for ceasefire talks - reportAn Iranian delegation arrived in the Pakistani capital Islamabad last night for mediated talks with the US, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.The delegation is led by the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, according to the report.Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency has reported that news of Iranian officials arriving in Islamabad to negotiate with the US “is completely false”. Other state-affiliated media in Iran have also reported such denials.US vice-president JD Vance is expected to lead the US delegation. He will be joined by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, both of whom took part in three rounds of indirect nuclear talks with Iranian negotiators in Oman before the US and Israel launched attacks against Iran on 28 February.ShareIran is taking steps to keep control over maritime traffic through the strait of Hormuz in order to exert pressure on the US, thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.The effect is that oil prices will remain high so that Iran goes into upcoming negotiations with the US with more leverage to extract concessions, ISW reports.According to ISW, Iranian officials have said Iran will not allow more than 15 vessels per day to transit through the strait. Prior to the war, up to 140 vessels a day travelled through the strait. double quotation markThe Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization published a graphic on April 8 instructing ships to follow designated entry and exit routes in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy to transit the strait. These routes move international maritime traffic into Iranian-controlled waters. The graphic warns that ships risk hitting mines outside of these routes.” ShareIndonesia has said it has submitted a joint statement on peacekeeper security with dozens of allied nations to the United Nations after three of its blue helmets were killed in Lebanon.In the joint statement, the countries urged the UN Security Council to conduct a thorough investigation into the incidents in southern Lebanon that killed three Indonesian peacekeepers and wounded several others, including from France, Ghana, Nepal, and Poland.The foreign ministry in Jakarta said 73 countries and UN observer nations supported the statement, delivered by Indonesia’s permanent representative to the UN, Umar Hadi, in New York.View image in fullscreenSoldiers carry the coffins of the fallen Indonesian UN peacekeepers who were killed while serving in Lebanon onto a military aircraft in Jakarta. Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA“The safety and security of UN peacekeepers are non-negotiable. We urge the UN Security Council to use all available instruments to strengthen protection for peacekeeping forces amid an increasingly dangerous situation,” the ministry quoted Umar as saying.“Troop-contributing countries also call for an end to violence in Lebanon, de-escalation of tensions, and encourage all parties to return to the negotiating table to achieve a peaceful settlement,” it added.Three Indonesian peacekeepers died in two separate blasts in southern Lebanon in late March. A third blast less than a week later – inside a UN facility in southern Lebanon – injured three more Indonesian soldiers.ShareJD Vance heads to Pakistan this week with orders from Donald Trump to turn the shaky Iran ceasefire into a lasting peace deal.For the 41-year-old Vance, who has kept a notably low profile during the Middle East conflict, it will be one of the biggest moments of his career. But the man widely regarded as a leading contender in the 2028 US presidential election will face huge challenges too when talks begin Saturday in Islamabad.“I cannot think of a case where the vice president ran formal negotiations like this,” Aaron Wolf Mannes, a lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and an expert on the American vice presidency’s role in foreign policy, told the AFP news agency. double quotation markThis is high risk, high reward.” Vance built his political brand as an avowed anti-interventionist who wanted to keep America out of any more foreign wars. That has made for a difficult balancing act after Trump launched the Iran war.View image in fullscreenJD Vance speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two to return to Washington. Photograph: Getty ImagesThe New York Times reported this week that in discussions behind closed doors in the weeks before the war, Vance argued against military action, saying it could cause regional chaos and split Trump’s Maga coalition.But Vance now suddenly finds himself as Trump’s diplomatic closer for an Iran deal.Vance will be accompanied by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.One theory of why the vice-president is leading these efforts is that the Iranians may view him as a more likely partner for diplomacy, given his widely reported opposition to the war and general doubts about US interventionism.“If he can get something that papers it over without dealing with real issues, that’s probably enough,” says Mannes. double quotation markBut if nothing good comes of this, it raises questions about his competence, which is not going to help him electorally. And of course Rubio’s right there as a potential rival for 2028.” Share

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