Iran remains in peace talks despite first US strikes since ceasefire | US-Israel war on Iran
A proposed peace deal between Iran and the United States appeared to remain on the table Tuesday despite the United States bombing Iranian targets; This was Washington’s first military action since the April 8 ceasefire.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the US attack targeting missile launchers and efforts to lay new mines in the Strait of Hormuz as an “act of bad faith” and “a clear violation of the ceasefire” and said it would not leave the attack unanswered. However, he did not withdraw from the ongoing talks under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar.
Iran’s military did not take specific retaliation, saying it did not want the attack that killed four Iranian soldiers to disrupt the latest delicate steps towards the deal, which Iran plans to hail as one of the biggest milestones in the history of the resistance. Brent oil futures rose 4 percent following news of renewed conflict.
Donald Trump is holding a rare cabinet meeting at the presidential venue Camp David in Maryland, in a sign that he recognizes that the conflict has reached a decisive point. This will be only Trump’s second visit to the campus in his second term.
As Trump continues to face questions about how a planned peace deal would achieve the goals he set at the beginning of the war, last week he copied and pasted a rambling social media post from Democrats and the media claiming that he would declare victory for Iran even if Tehran “surrendered, its Navy is gone and resting at the bottom of the sea, the Air Force is no longer with us, and even if the entire Army leaves Tehran, throws down their weapons, and each man shouts “I do,” with their hands in the air. I surrender, surrender, as the representative wildly waves the White Flag. “I am becoming”.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, stayed in Doha for a second day on Tuesday, agreeing on means by which more than $12bn (£9bn) of frozen Iranian assets could be unlocked and transferred to an Iranian account. It also wants sanctions eased on Iran’s oil and petrochemical exports during the 60-day period set aside to negotiate new restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.
The agreement allocated a separate 30-day window for the United States to lift the embargo on Iranian oil ports and allow Iran commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, returning maritime traffic to levels before Israel and the United States launched the war on February 28.
The brief agreement, which would end the war but not outline peace, is rife with political sensitivity because all parties know they must try to produce a deal they can showcase to their voters as proof that the sacrifice was worthwhile.
Hardliners in Washington, Tehran and Jerusalem are all pressuring their negotiators not to make further concessions. Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, insisted that no agreement should result in Iran giving up control over the strait.
However, Galibaf, who was re-elected as president with an overwhelming majority this week, may marginalize this opposition for now. Reports stated that he focused on the method of accessing frozen Iranian assets in what has been described as the latest serious dispute between Tehran and Washington.
Its allies have said that due to the accumulated lack of trust, no further negotiations on the future of the strait or the nuclear program can be held without the prior transfer of frozen Iranian funds.
Consultations in Qatar have resulted in progress towards resolving the issue of frozen Iranian assets, but an Iranian lawmaker, Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, claimed that a plan to transfer $12 billion from Qatar to a Russian account before being sent to Iran was blocked at the last minute by the United States.
If the war restarts, he said, Iran knows the location of the hotels used by Trump’s chief negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Doha and Dubai and “they’ll get hit next time.”
In addition to the issue of freezing Iran’s assets, Tehran is also trying to strengthen the section that binds Israel to the ceasefire in Lebanon. The war appeared to be escalating rather than ending, with Israel admitting that it had launched operations north of the yellow line to shoot down Hezbollah’s missiles.
On Tuesday evening, the Israeli army issued two new evacuation warnings for residents of 19 villages in southern Lebanon as it expanded ground operations deeper into Lebanese territory.
Iran’s religious leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his father who was killed in US-Israeli attacks on the opening day of the war, claimed that the course of history was moving in Iran’s favor and called for unity among Muslim countries in a statement celebrating the beginning of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
Khamenei, who has not been seen in public or released any audio recordings since his ascension in March, projected confidence by predicting that Israel would be eliminated by 2040.
“What is certain is that time will not turn back and the nations and territories of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases. Not only will the United States no longer have a safe haven for its mischief and establishment of military bases in the region, but it is also moving further away from its former status with each passing day.”
He added: “The convulsing Zionist regime and Israel’s cancerous tumor are approaching the final stages of their miserable existence.” His remarks put into perspective Trump’s very cynical claim that Arab states, as well as Türkiye and Iran, should normalize relations with Israel.
