US vice-president JD Vance said some 12.5 millions barrels of crude oil were brought through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, hours after US president Donald Trump signed a provisional deal with Iran to end the war that has disrupted global energy supplies.
But in Lebanon , where more than a million people are displaced by the fighting, Israeli forces launched fresh air strikes early on Thursday, raising doubt about how far Trump will go to force his wartime allies to halt an offensive he has now pledged to end.
The US president signed the “memorandum of understanding” to end the war late on Wednesday, as did Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian, bringing it into effect two days earlier than previously expected. It calls for the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz and lifting of a US blockade of Iran’s ports.
Vance, who will represent the United States at a formal ceremony in Switzerland on Friday to confirm the interim accord, said the US expected Tehran would not have missiles that can “broadly threaten the entire world” as part of the deal agreed with Washington.
He said Thursday marked the start of the 60-day negotiation period to reach a final settlement to the war, which Trump launched in February alongside Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu .
But Israel, which launched an invasion of Lebanon in March and has since seized a large swathe of the south in pursuit of Hizbullah militants who opened fire across the border in support of Iran, was excluded from the negotiations.
Iran has always said any peace deal must also cover Lebanon. In an apparent major concession to Iran, the memorandum signed by Trump explicitly calls for the “permanent termination” of the war in Lebanon and for its “territorial integrity and sovereignty” to be ensured.
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Trump in recent days has become openly critical of his ally’s operations in Lebanon, accusing Israel of unnecessarily destroying entire buildings to hit Hizbullah fighters.
Israel has said it has no intention of withdrawing from Lebanon, whatever Trump negotiates. It released a new map on Thursday showing an expanded southern area occupied by its troops, which it describes as a buffer zone.
Vance told reporters one goal of the deal with Iran was to allow the Lebanese authorities to police the south of the country.
US vice president JD Vance speaks to reporters at the White House. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
“What we want to see is the Lebanese government, the elected representatives of the people of Lebanon, who are able to police southern Lebanon, so that Hizbullah has not taken over the country, the Israelis are not threatened, and then consequently the Israelis are not attacking southern Lebanon or Beirut either,” he said.
Two Israeli officials, including a senior official close to Netanyahu, told Reuters Israel was holding negotiations with the US to keep Israeli troops in Lebanon.
The senior official described those talks with Washington as “stubborn” and said Israel would not back down. The other official said the outcome would depend on whether Trump “decides to force the issue” by threatening repercussions on Israel.
Fighting in Lebanon continued on Thursday morning after Trump’s signature.
Lebanese state news agency NNA said three people were killed in Israeli air strikes on the southern Lebanese towns of Kfartebnit and Zebdine.
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When Trump launched the war, he said his aims were to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme, end its ability to strike its neighbours, prevent it from supporting allied militants in the region and make it possible for Iranians to topple their hardline leaders.
Though he initially demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, Trump ultimately signed the agreement with none of those objectives met.
US officials say the upcoming negotiations could still yield a strong agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme, but his critics, including some hawks in his own party, say Iran is in a stronger position now than before the war, having withstood a superpower attack, exerted control of the strait and gained valuable waivers to financial sanctions. – Reuters
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