Trump: 'Iran cannot blackmail US with strait of Hormuz'
Donald Trump has warned Iran not to “blackmail” the US with its flip-flopping on the status of the strait of Hormuz, after Tehran reversed its decision to reopen the waterway to shipping.
But the US president again struck a positive tone that a deal with Iran could be possible.
“They [Iran] got a little cute, as they have been doing for 47 years,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“We’re talking to them. They wanted to close up the strait again – you know, as they’ve been doing for years – and they can’t blackmail us.”
He added: “It’s going actually along very well, and we’ll see, but we’ll have some information by the end of the day.”
Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters
Iran 'considering new proposals put forward by US'
Iran’s supreme national security council, the country’s highest decision-making body under the supreme leader, said it is reviewing “new proposals” put forward by the US, according to Iranian media.
In a statement carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the Iran security council said the Pakistani army chief, Asim Munir, who has just concluded a three-day trip to Iran, relayed new proposals put forward by the US, which Tehran “is considering and has not yet responded to”.
It added that it will resume control over the strait of Hormuz “until the end of the war is definitively concluded”, warning that as long as the US naval blockade of Iranian port continues, Tehran will “regard it as a breach of the ceasefire and will prevent the conditional and limited reopening of the strait of Hormuz”.
UKMTO reports further attack and suspicious activity near strait of Hormuz
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has issued two further alerts relating to attacks and suspicious activity near the strait of Hormuz.
UKMTO said it received a report of a container ship “being hit by an unknown projectile” about 25 nautical miles northeast of Oman. It said some of the containers were damaged but no fire or environmental impact were reported.
In a separate alert, UKMTO said it received a report of suspicious activity about 3 nautical miles east of Oman, after a captain of a cruise ship spotted “a splash in close proximity of the vessel”.
Earlier today, UKMTO said it received a report that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ships had fired at a tanker near the strait. The ship’s captain reported that the crew was safe, UKMTO added.
A boat sails past a tanker anchored on the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm island. Photograph: Asghar Besharati/AP
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is asking if anybody has “looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing”.
While Spain has been especially critical of the US – with Trump responding in kind – over its decision to go to war with Iran, it is not clear what has brought on the US president’s latest verbal attack against the country.
The Spanish government is hosting a “Global Progressive Mobilisation” summit of left-wing leaders from across Europe and Latin America in Barcelona this weekend. While Trump was not specifically mentioned in public remarks, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said: “We all see the attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalisation of the use of force.” This is being widely interpreted as a swipe at Trump, particularly when Sánchez has not held back in previous comments about the US president.
In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump said:
Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!"
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has vowed to prosecute those who targeted French UN peacekeepers, killing one and wounding three.
In a statement shared by the presidency, Aoun expressed his condolences to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a phone call, condemning the incident and vowing that Beirut “will not hesitate to pursue those involved and bring them to justice”.
A senior Hezbollah official has said his group is not concerned by Lebanon’s planned direct talks with Israel, labelling them a failure.
In a press conference in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Mahmud Qamati said Hezbollah was “not concerned with the negotiations being conducted by the state” as they were “a failure, weak, defeated... and submissive negotiations”.
He added:
The resistance is the one that imposes. We are the land... and we are the ones who draw up the decisions, not those who have an official status.
He added that while his group did not mind Beirut “coordinating with us... not in this way that leads to surrender”.
People sit at the site of an Israeli strike carried out just before the 10-day ceasefire in Tyre. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters
This morning, a Unifil patrol clearing explosive ordnance along a road in the village of Ghanduriyah to re-establish links with isolated Unifil positions came under small-arms fire from non-state-actors.
Unifil calls on the Government of Lebanon to swiftly initiate an investigation to identify and hold the perpetrators accountable for the crimes committed against Unifil peacekeepers.
Macron: French soldier killed in Lebanon, Hezbollah likely responsible
We now have the full statement from Macron, who has blamed Hezbollah for the death of the French soldier.
France’s president said:
Sergeant Major Florian Montorio of the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment in Montauban was killed this morning in southern Lebanon during an attack against Unifil (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon).
Three of his comrades were wounded and evacuated.
He added:
All indications suggest that Hezbollah is responsible for this attack. France demands that the Lebanese authorities immediately arrest those responsible and take responsibility alongside Unifil.
UN peacekeepers stand guard as displaced people make their way back home in southern Lebanon. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters
Emmanuel Macron has just announced that a French soldier, working as a UN peacekeeper, was killed in Lebanon this morning.
We’ll bring you more on this shortly…
The US Central Command (Centcom) said American forces were enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports, claiming 23 ships have complied with their orders to turn around.
The statement followed Iran’s earlier announcement that it has reimposed “strict control” of the strait of Hormuz over the continuing US blockade.
Centcom said since commencement of the blockade on Monday, “23 ships have complied with direction from US forces to turn around”.
It continued: “American forces are enforcing a maritime blockade against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas.”
It added that Apache helicopters were “flying in and around the strait providing a visible presence in support of freedom of navigation”.
UN peacekeepers came under attack in Lebanon, says Lebanese PM
The Lebanese prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said French UN peacemakers came under attack in Lebanon, as he called for an urgent investigation into the incident.
He did not say who launched the attack against the French contingent of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), which has been patrolling areas south of the country.
In a statement on X, Salam said:
I strongly condemn today’s attack on members of the French battalion serving with Unifil. I have given strict instructions for an immediate investigation to be carried out to establish the circumstances of this attack and to hold the perpetrators to account. It goes without saying that such irresponsible behaviour causes great harm to Lebanon and its relations with friendly nations around the world that support it.
There has been no immediate comment from Unifil.
A member of the UN peacekeeping force stands by a burned out car in Qasmiyeh. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters
No date set for second round of negotiations between US and Iran, says Iranian official
Following initial talks between the US and Iran last weekend in Pakistan, the Iranian deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said a second date cannot be set until both sides “have agreed on the framework”.
Speaking to reporters at a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey, he said: “We do not wish to engage in any negotiations or meetings doomed to failure and which could serve as a pretext for further escalation.”
IDF confirms strikes in southern Lebanon during ceasefire
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed carrying out strikes in southern Lebanon yesterday in response to what it said were ceasefire violations by Hezbollah.
It is the first confirmed Israeli military action since the ceasefire in Lebanon took effect at midnight on Friday.
The IDF said its troops operating south of the so-called “yellow line” in southern Lebanon, which demarcates an area occupied by the Israeli military, “identified terrorists who violated the ceasefire agreements and approached the forces from north of the yellow line in a manner that posed an immediate threat”.
The IDF said its air force and ground troops “struck the terrorists in several areas in southern Lebanon” to “remove the threat”.
As reports come in of Iranian gun boats firing at a tanker near the strait of Hormuz, Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has issued a long statement on Telegram, praising his country’s military capabilities.
“In the same way that its [Iran’s] drones strike the US and the Zionist murderers like lightning, its valiant navy isalso ready to inflict new bitter defeats on its enemies,” he said.
