Iran on Thursday announced plans to introduce a system of maritime fees in the
Strait of Hormuz in two months, right after the 60-day period of negotiation with the US is over. The announcement came a day after the United States and the West Asian nation signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), marking an end to a conflict that has been raging on since February 28.
Claiming a “historic victory” over the US, Tehran said that the Strait was under its control and a European plan for a naval mission to escort ships through the Strait would not be welcome. Meanwhile, on the same day, the
US lifted its blockade on Iranian ports and oil tankers as vessels began to move freely through the critical waterway.
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It is pertinent to note that Tehran’s latest warning came as the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had said Israel “will maintain the security zone in south Lebanon as long as our security needs require it”, referring to the more than 600 sq km of Lebanese territory occupied by Israeli troops along the border.
On Iran, the Israeli premier said that the Jewish nation would continue to “adhere to the supreme objective” of not allowing Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran, on the other hand, insisted that the deal referring to the territorial integrity of Lebanon requires a full Israeli withdrawal, making US President Donald Trump accountable for Israel’s withdrawal.
Things get complicated
On Thursday, Trump said that the US expected “a complete ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon,
Hezbollah, and Israel”. “We encourage everyone in the Middle East Region to maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations to beautifully unfold,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Mojtaba Khamenei also approved the deal and went on to endorse direct negotiations with Trump’s team. Khamenei said Trump had “used all kinds of levers” to secure the deal “out of desperation”. It is pertinent to note that Khamenei has not been seen in public since he took office in March following the killing of his father.
However, things became complicated as Israeli drone attacks and artillery shelling against Lebanon continued well into Thursday morning. Hezbollah, on the other hand, claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against Israeli forces in the Kfar Tebnit-Ali al-Taher area in recent days.
Reacting to the recent events, US Vice President
JD Vance went ahead and scolded the Israeli critics. “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who’s sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said during a White House press briefing. “If I were in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” Israel has yet to respond to Vance’s condemnation.
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