Middle East live: Trump says Iran talks to be held in Qatar, but Tehran denies it
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Middle East live: Trump says Iran talks to be held in Qatar, but Tehran denies it
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US President Donald Trump said Iran has requested a meeting that will be held in Qatar on Tuesday, despite Tehran earlier denying that any technical talks have been scheduled. Trump’s social media post Monday comes as he tries to preserve an increasingly fragile interim deal as hostilities mount in the Strait of Hormuz. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.
Rubio, Witkoff to brief U.S. Congress on Iran deal, official says
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will brief the full US House of Representatives and Senate by phone on the deal with Iran, a White House official said.
France and Oman to cooperate with partners on de-mining Hormuz Strait, Macron says
France and Oman are working together to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East and will cooperate with their partners on clearing mines from the Strait of Hormuz, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.
“We have decided to collaborate, in conjunction with our partners, on clearing mines from the Strait in order to secure maritime routes and guarantee free and unconditional passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” Macton wrote on X after meeting with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al at the Elysee Palace.
Germany pledges €250 mln for Africa, Asia over Hormuz fallout
Germany will provide €250 million in additional support for hard-hit regions in Africa and Asia facing the impact of the prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the development ministry said.
The money will be used to improve acute food security, strengthen local resilience and assist small farmers, Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan said at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference according to the statement.
Iraq sets September 30 deadline for pro-Iran groups to disarm
Iraq’s government has given pro-Iran armed groups in the country until September 30 to disarm, its spokesman said during a press conference.
The announcement comes ahead of a visit to the United States by new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, with Washington exerting pressure on Baghdad to ensure the factions turn in their weapons.
Some of the groups targeted US facilities in Iraq during the Middle East war, which was sparked by Israeli-American strikes against Iran in late February.
Doha technical talks will be held on the sidelines of high-level talks, White House says
Top US envoys Witkoff and Kushner to attend meeting in Doha, White House confirms
US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will attend an expected meeting with Iran in Doha on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
“Special Envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be flying to Doha for high-level meetings this week, as we continue to discuss the memorandum of understanding. On the sidelines of those high-level talks, there will be the technical talks,” she said in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
Trump says Iran has ‘requested meeting’ in Doha on Tuesday
US President Donald Trump said a meeting on Iran would be held Tuesday in Doha, without giving further details.
“Iran has requested a meeting. It will take place tomorrow in Doha,” he wrote in a social media post.
Iran’s state news agency reports no technical meetings planned this week
What’s in the deal between Israel and Lebanon?
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-mediated peace framework that would leave Israeli troops inside occupied southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed and the Lebanese army takes control, terms the Iran-backed militia has rejected as surrender.
These are its main points:
- Peace and mutual recognition
Israel and Lebanon affirm each other’s right to exist in peace and security as sovereign neighbouring states and express their intent to formally end any state of war between them. Israel and Lebanon will continue US-backed negotiations toward a broad peace agreement.
- Disarmament of Hezbollah
Lebanon’s armed forces, the LAF, will gradually restore control over all of Lebanon, disarming Hezbollah and any other militant group. The first phase will begin in two pilot zones where reconstruction will begin while civilians safely return to those areas from which they fled Israeli attacks.
- Eventual israeli withdrawal
Israel declares it has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon and that once Hezbollah is disarmed in all of Lebanon and no longer poses a threat, it will redeploy its troops outside Lebanon.
- Reconstruction
Washington will rally international partners to help Lebanon to rebuild and recover.
- Legal measures, detainees
The two countries agree to halt “all hostile or adverse actions in international political or legal fora” and “pledge to work towards the search for and return of remains and the release of detainees.”
Syria slams Israeli incursions after violence in south
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned Israeli incursions and bombardment in the country’s south a day after violence near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that state media and locals said caused residents to briefly flee.
Tensions rose on Sunday in the village of Abidin in the Yarmuk Basin area in the southern province of Daraa after Israeli forces advanced into the area, with angry residents trying to block the road with stones to stop the patrol. State media and a local official said Israeli forces later responded with artillery fire, prompting residents to flee to nearby villages overnight.
Syria’s foreign ministry in a statement condemned “the Israeli attacks represented by incursions into Syrian territory in Quneitra and Daraa provinces and the targeting of the region with artillery shelling”, slamming “a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
After the December 2024 overthrow of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that for decades separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan, occupying what it now calls a “security zone” in southern Syria. It has also carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory, as well as bombings, and says it wants a demilitarised zone in the country’s south.
Iran says no technical meeting expected with US in coming days
Iran’s foreign ministry has denied reports that Iranian and American technical teams will meet in the coming days to discuss implementation of the deal to end the Middle East war.
“No technical meetings of the working groups are planned for this week,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said, quoted by state TV, referring to the Iranian week ending on Friday.
Sultan of Oman due in France
The Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tari is due in France today, where he will meet French President Emmanuel Macron with whom he will discuss the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and other developments in the Middle East. FRANCE 24’s Matthew-Mary Caruchet explains why Oman has become “the Switzerland of the Middle East” in terms of its diplomatic importance.
Israeli strike targeting a militant kills 3, including a child, in Gaza
An Israeli airstrike has killed at least three Palestinians, including a child, in the Gaza Strip after hitting a tent sheltering displaced people that Israel said housed a militant.
Health authorities in the coastal enclave said the strike hit a neighborhood in Deir al-Balah, one of the least damaged towns in central Gaza. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the fatalities were two men and an eight-year-old while a third man was wounded. Israel’s military identified the target as Zaher Abu Salem, who it said was a member of Islamic Jihad and was involved in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war.
While the heaviest fighting has subsided since a ceasefire took hold in October, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes, killing 1,045 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza. Israel has announced a series of strikes targeting militants, including three over the weekend.
‘Chaos’ as Washington says US, Iran to meet in Doha for talks
Washington and Tehran have agreed to halt a new series of tit-for-tat strikes and renew talks aimed at ending the Middle East war, a US official said Sunday. The recent strikes had threatened to upend the interim deal in place between the US and Iran, but even with the talks set to resume, the path to a lasting deal remains unclear, says FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Jerusalem Noga Tarnopolsky.
Senior Lebanese official slams US-brokered deal with Israel, warns of divisions
Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key ally of Hezbollah, has slammed the US-brokered deal between Lebanon and Israel, warning it could lead to attempts to divide the Lebanese and said it would not be implemented.
In comments to Lebanon’s al-Akhbar newspaper, Berri described Iran-US negotiations as the only realistic opportunity to secure Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and that any attempt to separate Lebanon from the US-Iran track would prolong Israeli occupation.
Israel has praised the separate agreement between Lebanon and Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying it allows Israeli forces to continue to occupy southern Lebanon if Hezbollah does not disarm. Hezbollah, which has demanded Beirut quit its face-to-face talks with the Israeli government, has rejected the deal as a surrender to Israel.
Berri, head of the Shiite Muslim Amal Movement, described the agreement as “dictates”. Al-Akhbar quoted Berri as saying the most dangerous aspect of the agreement was not only its political content, but “the potential for it to incite internal divisions and draw the Lebanese into a confrontation among themselves”.
Iranian, US technical teams to meet in Doha soon on MOU implementation, source says
Iranian and US technical teams working on the implementation of a memorandum of understanding are set to meet in Doha in the coming days, a source with knowledge of the talks told Reuters.
Mediators have established communications channels to de-escalate any incidents, and technical talks are set to continue, the source added.
Iranian president says half of Iran’s $12 billion assets in Qatar should be released
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that after Tehran’s agreement with the United States, which includes the lifting of oil and petrochemical sanctions, $6 billion out of $12 billion of assets frozen in Qatar should be released and returned to Iran, the IRNA news agency reported.
Oil climbs following renewed US, Iran strikes in Middle East
Oil prices rose following days of tit-for-tat strikes by the US and Iran that underscored the fragility of their interim peace deal and again slowed energy shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude futures climbed 45 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $72.44 a barrel at 0627GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $70.05 a barrel, up 82 cents, or 1.2 percent.
Brent crude fell 10.6 percent last week, its third weekly decline, after crude shipments through the strait rose last week to their highest level since the US-Israeli war on Iran began in late February.
However, traffic has since slowed following renewed attacks on ships in the strait from Thursday, including a Qatar-linked oil tanker, that triggered strikes from the US and Iran in the worst escalation since they signed an interim peace deal.
Iran and Oman hold first meeting of joint committee of Strait of Hormuz, Iranian deputy minister says
Iran and Oman have conducted the first meeting of a joint committee on the Strait of Hormuz in Muscat, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X.
Gharibabadi said they had exchanged views on Gulf coastal states’ sovereign rights as well as on the strait’s future management based on the interim deal signed this month by Tehran and Washington.
Yesterday’s key developments:
• The Israeli military said it destroyed a 200-metre-long tunnel used by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a village in southern Lebanon.
• The United States and Iran agreed to stop strikes against each other, and will meet on Tuesday in Doha, Qatar‘s capital, to work out their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz.
• Iran launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait, threatening a “complete halt” in negotiations if Washington continued its attacks against the Islamic Republic.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP and AFP)
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