DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors.
The two countries have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Netanyahu later stressed that there was no ceasefire between them. In a video statement, he said Israel will keep striking Hezbollah until security is restored in northern Israel.
There was no immediate response from Lebanon. But Israel-Lebanon negotiations were expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the matter.
The prospect of talks appeared to bolster the tentative ceasefire in the Iran war that has staggered under the weight of Israel’s bombardment of Beirut, Tehran’s continued chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and uncertainty over whether talks can find common ground.
However later Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the ceasefire, writing on his social media platform: “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz.”
“That is not the agreement we have!” Trump wrote.
Netanyahu's authorization of negotiations with Lebanon came amid disagreement over whether the ceasefire deal included a pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and a day after Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began Feb. 28.
Israel has fought multiple wars and launched several major invasions of Lebanon over the years, most recently sending in troops last month in response to Hezbollah fire on Israel’s northern border communities.
The launch of direct peace talks is a significant achievement, though reaching an agreement will be difficult after decades of hostilities, Hezbollah’s continued presence and longstanding disagreements over the countries' shared land border.
The talks in Washington are expected to be handled on the American side by the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, and on the Israeli side by the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, according to the person familiar with the planning.
It was not immediately clear who would represent Lebanon.
The timing and location of the talks was first reported by Axios.
After declaring victory with the ceasefire announcement, both Iran and the U.S. appeared to apply pressure on each other. Semiofficial news agencies in Iran suggested forces have mined the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil that Tehran has closed. Trump warned that U.S. forces would hit Iran harder than before if it did not fulfill the agreement.
Questions also remained over what will happen to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium at the heart of tensions, how and when normal traffic will resume through the strait, and what happens to Iran’s ability to launch future missile attacks and support armed proxies in the region.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a message on Telegram that Iran's decision to accept a ceasefire was made unanimously by senior government leaders and approved by the supreme leader. He said the ceasefire “is not a sign of weakness but a way to solidify Iran’s proud victories."
Despite disputes over the ceasefire, it appears to have halted weeks of missile and drone attacks by Iran on its Gulf Arab neighbors and Israel, with no new launches reported Thursday. There were no reports of strikes by the U.S. or Israel targeting Iran.
Israel vows to continue striking Hezbollah in Lebanon
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned in a social media post Thursday that continued Israeli attacks on the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon would bring “explicit costs and STRONG responses.”
Qalibaf has been discussed as a possible negotiator who could meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance this weekend in Islamabad. The White House has said Vance would lead the delegation for talks starting Saturday.
Iran had said Israel's ongoing attacks on Hezbollah were violating the ceasefire agreement. Netanyahu and Trump have said they were not.
Trump said Thursday that he has asked Netanyahu to dial back the strikes in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 300 people were killed and more than 1,100 wounded Wednesday by Israeli strikes on central Beirut and other areas of Lebanon that Israel said targeted Hezbollah, which joined the war in support of Tehran.
Israel said Thursday it killed an aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, Ali Yusuf Harshi. Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A New York-based think tank warned the ceasefire “ hovers on the verge of collapse ” following Israel's strikes Wednesday.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike overnight killed at least seven people in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately acknowledge the strike.
Threat of mines looms over the strait
Semiofficial news agencies in Iran published a chart Thursday suggesting the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war — a message that may be intended to pressure the United States.
The chart, released by the ISNA news agency and Tasnim, showed a large circle marked “danger zone” in Farsi over the route ships take through the strait, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas once passed.
Only a trickle of ships have transited since the war began after several were attacked, and Iran threatened to hit any that it deemed connected to the U.S. or Israel. Ships appeared to continue to avoid the strait even after the ceasefire.
The chart suggested that ships travel through waters closer to Iran’s mainland near Larak Island, a route some ships were observed taking during the war. It was dated from Feb. 28 until April 9, and it was unclear if the Guard had cleared any mines since then.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told the BBC that his country will allow ships to pass through the strait in accordance with “international norms and international law” once the United States ends its “aggression” in the Middle East and Israel stops attacking Lebanon.
The head of the United Arab Emirates’ major oil company, Sultan al-Jaber, said some 230 ships loaded with oil were waiting to get through the strait and must be allowed "to navigate this corridor without condition.”
The strait’s de facto closure has caused oil prices to skyrocket — affecting the cost of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East. The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $98 Thursday, up about 35% since the war began.
Fate of Iran’s enriched uranium remains a question
The fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs — which the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war — was unclear. The U.S. insists Iran must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants to remove Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build them. Iran insists its program is peaceful.
Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. would work with Iran to remove the uranium, buried in last year's U.S. and Israeli strikes, though Iran did not confirm that. In one version of the ceasefire deal that Iran published, it said it would be allowed to continue enrichment.
The chief of Iran’s nuclear agency, Mohammad Eslami, said Thursday that protecting Tehran’s right to enrich uranium is “necessary” for any ceasefire talks.
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Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong, Zeke Miller and Matthew Lee in Washington, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Kareem Chehayeb and Hussein Malla in Beirut contributed to this report.
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