Vice President JD Vance issued a direct warning, posting on X that \u201cviolence will be met with violence\u201d if Iran carries out any further attacks.<\/p>\n
Minutes later, on Saturday morning Iran time, state television reported that the Revolutionary Guards said they targeted US sites in the Gulf region in retaliation for the American strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the aggression is repeated, our response will be broader than this,\u201d the Guards said, according to a post by state TV on Telegram.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump slammed Iran for carrying out the drone attack. Photo \/ AFP<\/p>\n
The exchanges raised fresh questions about efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open while Washington and Tehran negotiate a final settlement to a war that began February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n
Iran has warned vessels not to enter or leave the Gulf through the strait without permission, but ships have continued to move, some using a route not authorised by Tehran.<\/p>\n
Around half of the 42 vessels that made the passage Thursday used a non-approved southern route along Oman\u2019s coast, according to tracking platform Kpler.<\/p>\n
The UN maritime agency said an evacuation operation had freed 115 vessels and 2500 seafarers trapped by the dispute before the attack forced its suspension.<\/p>\n
Oil prices nevertheless fell sharply, reflecting hopes that traffic through Hormuz \u2013 a strategic waterway which normally sees around a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas exports \u2013 would keep recovering despite the latest flare-up.<\/p>\n
Lebanon framework<\/p>\n
Israel and Lebanon hailed an agreement signed with the United States to pave a way towards peace on their front in the war, although Iran-backed Hezbollah warned the deal would thwart plans to resolve the broader conflict.<\/p>\n
At a signing ceremony in Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, flanked by Israeli and Lebanese envoys, said the trilateral accord \u201cbegins to put in place a framework for lasting peace and security\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the beginning of the beginning. There\u2019s a lot of work ahead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the framework as a victory against Iran, which argues that the Lebanon front is inseparable from the wider war and should be resolved as part of Tehran\u2019s talks with Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran has been trying to force us to withdraw from southern Lebanon through pressure but, in effect, Israel, Lebanon, and the United States are telling them: this is none of your business,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have no role in Lebanon \u2013 not you, not Hezbollah and not any terrorist organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netanyahu said the agreement would allow the Lebanese army to return to two \u201cpilot areas\u201d in southern Lebanon, but that Israeli forces would remain in their security zone until Hezbollah is disarmed. Displaced civilians will be prevented from returning.<\/p>\n
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun welcomed the unpublished framework as a \u201cfirst step\u201d towards civilians returning home \u201cunder the sovereignty of the Lebanese state\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be no more occupation, prisoners, subordination or tutelage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said the Washington signing sought to undercut the US-Iran ceasefire, which he said envisioned Lebanon being settled through the wider peace process.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese Government, he warned, would be unable to impose the agreement \u201cunless they go, with American support, to civil war\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nuclear safeguards<\/p>\n
The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, meanwhile, warned that any final US-Iran settlement would need strong safeguards to ensure Tehran does not build a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s nuclear programme remains a central sticking point in the talks, with Tehran and Washington giving conflicting accounts of whether UN inspectors will regain access to Iranian facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government of Iran has declared quite clearly that this is not their intention,\u201d International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said of developing nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut of course intentions are not enough. We have to have a very strong verification system in place … as soon as is practicable,\u201d he added, warning that the agency had so far \u201cbarely initiated\u201d talks with Iran.<\/p>\n
The interim agreement says Iran\u2019s stockpile of enriched uranium \u2013 estimated before the war at 440kg enriched to 60% \u2013 should be \u201cdownblended\u201d under IAEA supervision.<\/p>\n
\u2013 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vice President JD Vance issued a direct warning, posting on X that \u201cviolence will be met with violence\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[42974,8849,614,3355,50893,2028,3065,12325,54597,5296,35952,721,11195,595,34,54596,4546,179,22045,13694,4738,12704,601,2081,54598,69,11671,603,48483,600,153,36,1705],"class_list":["post-179673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-accused","tag-after","tag-american","tag-attacked","tag-attacking","tag-cargo","tag-ceasefire","tag-contain","tag-diplomats","tag-east","tag-fragile","tag-guards","tag-have","tag-in","tag-iran","tag-jeopardising","tag-middle","tag-military","tag-response","tag-say","tag-ship","tag-sites","tag-states","tag-strikes","tag-struggle","tag-tehran","tag-they","tag-to","tag-traded","tag-united","tag-us","tag-war","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116819884966087590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179673","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=179673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}