Middle East crisis live: Iran sends mixed signals on talks after US seizes ship
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/apr/20/iran-war-latest-news-updates-live-hormuz-trump-us-iranian-ship-ceasefire-doubt
Official tells Reuters it is ‘positively reviewing’ involvement in negotiations after earlier saying it had no plans for a new round of talks
Mon 20 Apr 2026 12.20 EDT
Iran 'positively' reviewing US peace talks participation - but no decision yet, official says
A senior Iranian official has told the Reuters news agency that Tehran is “positively reviewing” its participation in potential peace talks with the US but stressed that no final decision has been made.
As we have been reporting, Iran said earlier that it has no plans for a new round of talks with the US, ahead of the end of the ceasefire on Wednesday (see post at 08.59 for more details).
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said that the US attack on the Iranian cargo ship this morning, the US naval blockade on Iranian ports and delays in implementing a ceasefire in Lebanon were all “clear violations of the ceasefire”.
It is unclear whether a second round of negotiations scheduled to take place in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad today will go ahead as planned.
- Trump claims that Israel never 'talked' him into launching a war on Iran
- US delegation to land in Islamabad for talks within hours - report
- Iran 'positively' reviewing US peace talks participation - but no decision yet, official says
- Lebanon's president says he is hopeful talks with Israel could help 'save' his country
- Iran has no plans for second round of talks with the US, foreign ministry spokesperson says
- Pezeshkian says that 'every rational and diplomatic path should be used to reduce tensions'
- IDF demolishing homes in Lebanon, paying bulldozers based on how many building are destroyed, reports say
- Interim summary
- IDF warns Lebanese residents to not cross specified line
- Footage of US Marines rappelling onto Iranian vessel released
- Footage of US destroyer firing at Iranian vessel released
- Oil prices surge amid uncertainty over strait and peace talks
- Bahrain to review citizenship for those deemed threat to its security
- More than 5,000 killed since war began: report
- Summary
Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike hit a town in the country’s south on Monday despite a 10-day ceasefire in force between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The state-run National News Agency said that “an enemy drone targeted the vicinity of the Litani River in the town of Qaqaiyat al-Jisr”, without immediately reporting casualties.
Under the ceasefire, Israel reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Monday, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
Lavrov reiterated the need to uphold the ceasefire and stressed the importance of continued diplomatic efforts, while the Iranian side confirmed its readiness to do everything in its power to ensure the uninterrupted passage of Russian ships and cargo through the strait of Hormuz.
French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday called for the United States and Iran to de-escalate amid increased tensions over the weekend over the strait of Hormuz.
“Our position remains the same. We need to settle things through diplomacy. Everyone must calm down,” Macron said during a joint press conference with Polish prime minister Donald Tusk.
A US delegation will head to Pakistan “soon” for a new round of peace negotiations with Iran, a source familiar with the plan told AFP on Monday, as Iran said it had yet to decide whether to attend.
After initial talks in Islamabad ended without a deal earlier this month, both sides have accused the other of breaching a temporary truce that is now in its final days.
Iraq has reopened the Rabia border crossing with Syria after more than a decade to accelerate overland fuel oil exports and revive cross-border trade amid disruption to Gulf shipping following the Iran war, Iraqi border officials said on Monday.
The crossing, located in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, will allow fuel oil shipments to be trucked through Syria while also reopening the route to commercial trade traffic that has been halted since the conflict that followed Syria’s civil war, officials said.
The head of Iraq’s Border Ports Commission, Omar al-Waeli, said reopening Rabia would ease pressure on fuel shipments to Syria by allowing more fuel oil trucks to cross, with most convoys currently backed up at the al-Waleed crossing in western Iraq, the only operating border point.
Trump claims that Israel never 'talked' him into launching a war on Iran
In a new post to Truth Social, Donald Trump has said that Israel never “talked” him into the war with Iran, after reports that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, put pressure on him into launching their joint assault on Iran in late February.
Justifying his military action, widely seen as being launched illegally, the US president claimed that the “results of Oct. 7th” added to his “lifelong opinion” that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.
As my colleague Julian Borger notes in this story, Trump has repeatedly claimed, since starting the war, that Iran had been two to four weeks from making a nuclear weapon and firing it at the US and Israel, a claim rejected as absurd by most experts.
Trump signed off his Truth Social post by saying if Iran’s new leaders are “smart” then the country can have a “great and prosperous” future.
He has previously said the US has been negotiating with figures inside of Iran other than the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has reportedly been recovering from severe facial and leg injuries suffered in the airstrike that killed his father at the beginning of the war.
Reuters is reporting that Israeli and Lebanese representatives will hold talks in Washington on Thursday. Israel will be represented by its ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, the source told the news agency.
Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, has expressed optimism over future negotiations, which he hopes will bring an end to the war and achieve a complete Israeli withdrawal from the southern parts of his country.
Hezbollah, which operates independently of the Lebanese state, has said it opposes direct talks with Israel and its lawmakers have criticised the government for agreeing to hold such negotiations.
The Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, which came into effect on 16 April, is set to last ten days. In an outline issued by the US state department, it said both parties, having met for face-to-face talks in Washington last week, “affirm that the two countries are not at war and commit to engaging in good-faith direct negotiations, facilitated by the United States”.
The ceasefire is described as “a gesture of goodwill by the government of Israel, intended to enable good-faith negotiations toward a permanent security and peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon”.
However, it reiterates Israel’s right “to take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks”.
Crucially though, the 10-day ceasefire agreement does not demand Israel withdraw soldiers occupying parts of southern Lebanon, where Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said Israeli troops would continue to demolish homes he claimed, without evidence, were being used by Hezbollah.
Israel on Monday told residents of south Lebanon to stay out of a belt of territory running the length of the border and not to approach the area of the Litani river, about 30km from the border with Israel.
US delegation to land in Islamabad for talks within hours - report
The New York Post is reporting that vice-president JD Vance and the rest of the US delegation is set to land in Pakistan within hours for talks on Iran.
“We’re supposed to have the talks,” Trump said. “So I would assume at this point nobody’s playing games.”
The US president told the Post that US delegation – which also includes envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law/adviser Jared Kushner – is on its way to Islamabad, despite Tehran saying t has “no plans for the next round” of peace talks.
“They’re heading over now,” Trump said just after 9am EST. “They’ll be there tonight, (Islamabad) time.” He suggested he would be ready to meet top Iranian leaders if a breakthrough in negotiations is achieved. We have not yet been able to independently verify any of the claims made in the New York Post’s story.
Vance left Islamabad last Sunday after 21 hours of failed peace talks with Iranian officials. He blamed the failure on Iran’s apparent refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, while Iranian delegates claimed the US needed to do more to win their trust.
Iran 'positively' reviewing US peace talks participation - but no decision yet, official says
A senior Iranian official has told the Reuters news agency that Tehran is “positively reviewing” its participation in potential peace talks with the US but stressed that no final decision has been made.
As we have been reporting, Iran said earlier that it has no plans for a new round of talks with the US, ahead of the end of the ceasefire on Wednesday (see post at 08.59 for more details).
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said that the US attack on the Iranian cargo ship this morning, the US naval blockade on Iranian ports and delays in implementing a ceasefire in Lebanon were all “clear violations of the ceasefire”.
It is unclear whether a second round of negotiations scheduled to take place in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad today will go ahead as planned.
Only three ships crossed the strait of Hormuz on Monday, according to data from Kpler, after only one made it through yesterday. The average number of vessels crossing the vital waterway before the war was over 120 per day.
In response to US-Israeli attacks on Iran in late February, Tehran effectively closed the strait to vessels, only allowing a relatively small number of ships from “friendly” countries like China, Malaysia and Pakistan through.
Iranian authorities have since demanded the right to impose tolls on vessels transiting the vital waterway, where roughly 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually passes through, including after the war ends. This is something that the US says it won’t accept.
On Friday, Iran said it would be “completely open” to commercial vessels for the remainder of the ceasefire between the US and Iran, which is due to end on Wednesday.
Iran’s military headquarters, however, subsequently accused the US of a violation of the agreement after the American military attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged container ship that attempted to get past a US blockade.
The effective closure of the strait have sent global energy prices soaring and has prompted countries to implement fuel rationing and place restrictions on electricity consumption.
Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Monday, health officials said, and fighters from Hamas clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia, witnesses have told Reuters news agency.
Medics said one man was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Bureij camp in the central area of the territory, while another strike killed one person and wounded others in Gaza City.
The two deaths were the latest violence to overshadow the ceasefire deal signed in October after two years of full-blown war between Israel and Hamas. Progress on moving forward with parts the deal, which include the disarmament of Hamas and Israeli army pullouts, has stalled.
The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment on either incident. The Guardian has not independently verified this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment