U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week dismissed Iran\u2019s latest formal proposal as \u201cgarbage.\u201d While Iran was said to include some nuclear concessions, Trump has said he wants to remove highly enriched uranium from the country and prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.<\/p>\n
In separate negotiations in Washington between Israel and Lebanon, both sides agreed Friday to extend their ceasefire until early June, U.S. officials said.<\/p>\n
With talks between Iran and the U.S. at a standstill during the shaky ceasefire, tensions remain high and threaten to tip the Middle East back into open warfare and prolong the worldwide energy crisis sparked by the conflict.<\/p>\n
Iran still has a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway where a fifth of the world\u2019s oil passed through before the war, and America is blockading Iranian ports.<\/p>\n
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who finished talks on Friday, agreed the strait needs to be reopened.<\/p>\n
China could play a diplomatic role, Iran says <\/p>\n
Araghchi said Friday that Iran would welcome diplomatic support from other countries, particularly from China, citing Beijing\u2019s previous role in facilitating the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
Beijing has shown little public interest in U.S. requests to get more involved, even though Trump told Fox News\u2019 Sean Hannity that Xi had in their conversations offered to help.<\/p>\n
Pakistan said Thursday it was continuing diplomatic efforts to help ease regional tensions. But it declined to disclose details of the discussions or say whether the U.S. had formally responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clock on diplomacy has not stopped. The peace process is working,\u201d Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told reporters in Islamabad.<\/p>\n
Iran says uranium is a sticking point<\/p>\n
Trump has demanded a major rollback of Iran\u2019s nuclear activities while Iran says it has a right to enrich uranium.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war with Trump on Feb. 28, also wants Iran\u2019s highly enriched uranium removed from the country.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign minister said Friday that the issue of its enriched uranium stockpile is one of the most difficult subjects in negotiations with the U.S.<\/p>\n
Russia has previously offered to take the stockpile if Iran is willing to give it up. Araghchi said Russia\u2019s proposal was not currently under active discussion, but could be revisited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we come to that stage, obviously we will have more consultations with Russia and see if the Russian offer can help or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Israel and Lebanon extend ceasefire as strikes continue <\/p>\n
Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend the expiring Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire for another 45 days to allow for negotiations on a broader peace agreement, the U.S. State Department said.<\/p>\n
After two days of meetings, the department said it would reconvene the two sides for discussions on June 2 and 3, while a military track \u2014 between the Israeli and Lebanese armies \u2014 by the Pentagon will begin on May 29. Hezbollah opposes Lebanon\u2019s direct negotiations with Israel and has not been part of the talks.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the talks were frank and constructive. \u201cThere will be ups and downs, but the potential for success is great,\u201d he said in a social media post. \u201cWhat will be paramount throughout negotiations is the security of our citizens and our soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ongoing ceasefire hasn\u2019t stopped Israel and Hezbollah from trading strikes.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said Friday it hit Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon after reporting hostile aircraft alerts and launches from across the border. Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said three paramedics were killed in a strike near the city of Harouf. Other strikes around the coastal city of Tyre wounded nearly 40 people, destroyed a health center and damaged the neighboring Hiram Hospital, wounding six medical workers, the ministry said.<\/p>\n
Chinese-owned ship taken into Iranian waters<\/p>\n
A Chinese-owned ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates was seized this week and taken toward Iranian waters.<\/p>\n
Chinese private security company Sinoguards said it had \u201cbeen informed through relevant channels\u201d that the vessel Hui Chuan, which it was operating as an offshore work platform, was taken into Iranian waters for documentation and compliance inspection by the authorities.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s emailed statement said there was no indication of any injuries on the ship and that it was cooperating.<\/p>\n
Honduras, where the ship was flagged, said the ship had 17 crew including people from Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
The seizure happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country\u2019s claim of control over the Strait of Hormuz and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the U.S.<\/p>\n
The U.S. seized vessels in the Gulf of Oman last month and on Friday the foreign minister of Pakistan said it had secured the return of 11 Pakistani nationals and 20 Iranian citizens who were aboard those vessels. \u201cAll individuals are in good health and high spirits,\u201d said the foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said.<\/p>\n
UAE speeds up construction of oil pipeline <\/p>\n
The United Arab Emirates is speeding up the completion of a new pipeline that will allow the Gulf federation to export more oil without routing it through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, directed state oil company ADNOC to accelerate work on the pipeline, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said Friday.<\/p>\n
The oil company already runs a pipeline designed to carry 1.5 million barrels a day from its oil fields to the port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman.<\/p>\n
The new pipeline, expected to double the company\u2019s export capacity through that port, will become operational next year, the media office said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press reporters Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel; Matthew Lee in Washington; and Mae Anderson in New York contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week dismissed Iran\u2019s latest formal proposal as \u201cgarbage.\u201d While Iran was said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[197,1829,34,196,768,81,200,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-116256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-general-news","9":"tag-international-agreements","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-iran-war","12":"tag-military-and-defense","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-war-and-unrest","15":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116582944741365558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}