Middle East crisis live: US blockade of Iranian ports continues with France and UK to chair talks on strait of Hormuz
TL;DR
The US has initiated a naval blockade of Iranian ports, while UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will co-host a summit in Paris to discuss reopening the strait of Hormuz.
Key points
- US has initiated a naval blockade of Iranian ports
- UK and France to co-host a summit in Paris
- Summit aims to reopen the strait of Hormuz
- Macron emphasizes a strictly defensive mission
- Multinational plan to safeguard shipping discussed
From
UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron will co-host a summit in Paris on Friday focused on efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz, Downing Street said.
A spokesperson said: “The summit will advance work towards a coordinated, independent, multinational plan to safeguard international shipping once the conflict ends.”
Macron has previously said the countries participating in the initiative would work on a “strictly defensive mission, separate from the warring parties to the conflict” which “is intended to be deployed as soon as circumstances permit”.
The announcement came as the US began its naval blockade of Iranian ports, with White House officials defending it as a just response to Iran effectively shutting the strait of Hormuz.
Still, reports suggest there could be a path for a second round of negotiations between the warring parties, with Reuters news agency citing Iranian sources as saying talks could resume in Pakistan later this week or early next week. Associated Press also reported the same, quoting US officials as saying discussions were still underway about a new round of talks, which could happen on Thursday.
The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves has said she was “very frustrated and angry” over what she said was the United States’ failure to have a clear exit plan or objectives for the war in Iran, according to the Mirror newspaper.
“This is a war that we did not start. It was a war that we did not want. I feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve,” the British finance minister told the newspaper.
“And as a result the strait of Hormuz is now blocked,” she added.
As the Iranian-linked militia Hezbollah urges Lebanon to pull out of talks with Israel later today, Reuters has some more details, including the news that US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will attend.
Talks will be held in Washington at 11am ET (3pm GMT, 4pm BST) between the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, officials say.
As well as Rubio, the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, and the state department’s counsellor, Michael Needham, would attend, a department official said.
Lebanon, Israel and the US have issued conflicting statements on what the talks would cover.
Lebanon’s presidency has said the talks would focus on announcing a ceasefire and setting a start date for bilateral talks. A ceasefire was the only substantive issue Moawad is authorised to discuss, Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh said on Sunday.
Israel would not discuss a ceasefire during the talks, which would focus on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said on Monday.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expects the steepest quarterly decline in demand for crude oil since the Covid-19 pandemic slashed fuel consumption.
The IEA noted that its forecasts assume a “base case” of oil shipments resuming in May through the strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed since the start of the war on 28 February.
This would lead to a decline in demand of 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in the second quarter, “the sharpest since Covid-19 slashed fuel consumption”, the IEA said.
Overall demand is forecast to have contracted by 800,000 bpd in March and is seen dropping by 2.3 million bpd in April.
Further to its earlier news alert on the possible second round of US-Iran talks in Islamabad (see post at 08:06), Reuters is now citing an Iranian embassy in Pakistan as saying negotiations could take place this week or early next week.
“No firm date has been set, with the delegations keeping Friday through Sunday open,” a senior Iranian source said, according to the news agency.
Three Iran-linked tankers have passed through the strait of Hormuz on the first full day of the US blockade of Iranian ports, Reuters has reported, citing shipping data.
The news agency reported that the three vessels were not heading to Iranian ports, and so they were not covered by the blockade.
They were:
- Panama-flagged Peace Gulf, a medium-range tanker that was heading to Hamriyah port in the UAE. The vessel typically moves Iranian naphtha, an oil product that is used for making plastics and chemicals.
- US-sanctioned tanker, Murlikishan, that was sailing to Iraq to load fuel oil. The vessel, formerly known as MKA, has transported Russian and Iranian oil.
- Rich Starry, a US sanctioned and Chinese flagged vessel, which would be the first to pass the strait of Hormuz. It is carrying about 250,000 barrels of methanol, which it loaded at its last port of call, the UAE’s Hamriyah. The New York Times reported the vessel picked up the methanol from an unspecified port in the Persian Gulf and was bound for China.
In further comments, Guo said the US blockade of Iranian ports “further jeopardises safety of passage through the strait [of Hormuz]”, calling it “dangerous and irresponsible behaviour”.
China said it will impose “countermeasures” after Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on its goods entering the US if Beijing provided military assistance to Iran.
“If the US insists on using this as an excuse to impose additional tariffs on China, China will definitely take resolute countermeasures,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a news conference, according to AFP news agency.
Guo added that reports China was providing weapons to Iran “are completely fabricated”.
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has put forward a four-point proposal for peace and stability in the Middle East, as he called for the world not to be allowed to “revert to the law of the jungle”.
In the most significant remarks he’s made so far about the crisis in the Middle East, Xi said China would play a “constructive role” in promoting peace talks in the Middle East.
He made the comments during a meeting with Khaled bin Mohamed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, in Beijing today, where the two sides exchanged views on the current situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region, according to a readout by the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
On his four-point proposal, Xi called for:
- Upholding a “principle of peaceful coexistence” and to “promote the building of a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security architecture for the Middle East and the Gulf region”.
- Upholding state sovereignty, including the protection of personnel, facilities and institutions.
- Upholding international rule of law that should not be “used it when it is convenient and abandoned when it is not … we cannot allow the world to revert to the law of the jungle”.
- All countries to “integrate development and security” and “create a favourable environment and inject positive energy into the development of the Gulf states in the Middle East”.
Reuters has reported that the US and Iran will return to Pakistan for peace talks. Citing four sources, the news agency said the negotiating teams from both sides will be in Islamabad for a second round of talks later this week.
We will bring you more updates as we get it.
Saudi Arabia is urging the US to end its blockade of the strait of Hormuz over fears Iran could retaliate and target other shipping routes, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing Arab officials.
The officials raised concerns that Iran could close the Bab al-Mandab, a major global chokepoint between Yemen and the Horn of Africa which has been vulnerable to Houthi attacks. Saudi Arabia has been relying on its Red Sea port at Yanbu to export oil, but if the Bab el-Mandeb closes, the kingdom could lose its last remaining export route.
It’s 9.30am in Tehran, 9am in Tel Aviv and 2am in Washington DC – and if you’re just joining today’s live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran, here’s a summary of the latest to bring you up to speed.
- The US blockade of ships using Iranian ports in the Gulf began on Monday, turning the six-week-old conflict between the US-Israeli coalition and Iran into a test of economic endurance.
- Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, warned that any threat to the strait of Hormuz would have “widespread consequences for the world”, according to Iranian media. Pezeshkian reportedly told French president Emmanuel Macron yesterday that the US’s “excessive demands” had thwarted an agreement during the weekend talks in Pakistan.
- US Central Command said the blockade would apply to any ships entering or departing Iranian ports or coastal areas, while ships using non-Iranian ports would not be impeded.
- Donald Trump claimed at the White House that “we’ve been called by the other side”, which would “like to make a deal very badly”. He insisted the US would not agree to any deal that would permit Iran to have a nuclear weapon, saying: “We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world.” News reports indicated US officials were continuing talks with Tehran.
- Oil prices plunged and stocks rose on Tuesday on hopes for a deal to end the war.
An Iranian woman stands in front of a banner in Tehran depicting portraits of the mothers of schoolgirls killed in a 28 February strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, which killed up to 168 people, amid US-Israeli attacks on the first day of the war. Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
- Iran criticised the US blockade around its ports on Monday as a “grave violation” of its sovereignty amid the fragile ceasefire. The “unlawful” blockade also “constitutes a serious violation of the fundamental principles of the international law of the sea”, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, wrote to UN secretary general António Guterres in a letter.
- US vice-president JD Vance accused the Iranian government of engaging in an “act of economic terrorism” by blocking traffic through the Hormuz strait.
- Talks are expected in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the US. It will be the first time in decades that envoys from Lebanon and Israel, which do not have diplomatic relations, will meet face-to-face in direct talks. Lebanese officials are looking to broker a ceasefire with Israel.
- Hezbollah would not abide by any agreements that may result from the Lebanon-Israel talks – negotiations the Lebanese militant group firmly opposes, senior Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa said. Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, urged Lebanon to pull out of the talks.
- The Israeli military said one of its soldiers was killed in combat in southern Lebanon and three others injured.
- Iran proposed suspending its uranium enrichment for up to five years after the US sought 20 years at the talks in Pakistan, the New York Times reported, saying the Trump administration rejected the five-year offer.
- A tanker sanctioned by the US travelled through the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, shipping data on LSEG showed, testing the US naval blockade. The tanker Rich Starry is Chinese-owned and has Chinese crew onboard, Reuters cited the data as showing.
Here are some of the latest images coming in from the Middle East in the seventh week since the war began and amid a fragile US-Iran ceasefire.
Iranians looks at the ruins of homes destroyed in US-Israeli airstrikes in Tehran. Photograph: Behnam Tofighi/UPI/Shutterstock
People walk by the Old City walls illuminated with the message ‘We will never forget’ on the eve of Israel’s Holocaust memorial day (Yom HaShoah) in Jerusalem on Monday. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA
People chant slogans during an anti-US and Israel rally at Enghelab Square, Tehran. Photograph: Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
A man who says he survived an Israeli strike last week sits beside piled damaged cars at the site at Corniche al-Mazraa in Beirut, Lebanon. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
A visitor looks at an exhibition ahead of Israel’s Holocaust memorial day at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, in Jerusalem. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
A relative reacts at a temporary cemetery housing graves of Hezbollah fighters and other Lebanese people killed in Israeli attacks in Choueifat, Lebanon. Photograph: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters
Iran’s representative to the UN has demanded compensation from countries it says participated in the US and Israeli war effort against Iran.
Iran’s state media reports the nations include Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
Iran’s official news agency, Irna – cited by the AP – said the country’s representative to the UN, Amir-Saeid Iravani, claimed the countries had violated international law and had to “make full compensation for the damages caused to the Islamic Republic of Iran, including payment of compensation for all material and moral damages resulting from their international violations”.
As reported earlier, Iravani denounced the US blockade around its ports on Monday as a “grave violation” of its sovereignty.
Oil prices plunged and stocks rose on Tuesday on hopes for a deal to end the war, with Donald Trump saying Tehran had called to seek an agreement, even as the US blockade of Iranian ports came into force.
While the weekend peace talks in Pakistan ended with no breakthrough, investors took heart from the two sides finding some areas of agreement, with the Islamic republic saying they had been “inches away” at one point, AFP reports.
Meanwhile, April could shape up to be a tougher month than March for energy markets and the economy, the head of the International Energy Agency said.
Fatih Birol said March saw delivery of cargo loaded before the crisis in the Middle East, but “during the month of April, nothing has been loaded”.
“The longer the disruption is, the more severe the problem becomes,” he told reporters after a meeting at the International Monetary Fund in Washington on Monday.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has touched down in Beijing and hopes to boost cooperation on issues including the war in the Middle East.
China welcomed a string of leaders of countries that have been impacted by the war and its economic fallout on Tuesday, including Vietnam’s To Lam and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Lavrov will hold talks with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, with Russia’s foreign ministry saying they would discuss the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.
Wang held a call with Lavrov on 5 April, when the pair agreed Beijing and Moscow would work together to deescalate tensions in the Middle East, AFP reports.
Chinese premier Li Qiang, meanwhile, told the UAE leader that Beijing was ready to help restore “peace and tranquility in the Gulf region”.
In a move designed to increase pressure on the US to make compromises in its conflict with his country, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has been briefing European capitals on the nature of the offer Iran had been willing to make about its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and future stewardship of the strait of Hormuz during the weekend talks in Islamabad.
After the inconclusive talks, Araghchi held phone briefings with the French and German foreign ministers, Jean-Noël Barrot and Johann Wadephul, as well as the Saudi, Omani and Qatari foreign ministers.
It is understood he stressed that Iran did not regard the Pakistan-led process as exhausted, even after 21 hours of intensive talks.
Europe has been sidelined on the Iran file by Donald Trump for more than a year, as the US president focused on working with Israel, while Tehran has largely dismissed European governments, seeing them as inveterate creatures of America. But the signs of the deepening transatlantic split, and the intense pressure being applied to European economies, has led Iran to review its stance on Europe as a potential lever on Trump.
See the full story here:
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has held phone briefings with his counterparts from France and Germany, as well as Gulf neighbours. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock
The Israeli military says one of its soldiers has been killed in combat in southern Lebanon and three others injured.
“In the incident in which Sergeant Major (Res.) Ayal Uriel Bianco fell, a reservist was moderately injured, and two additional reservists were lightly injured,” the IDF posted on X.
It added the soldiers were evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital and that their families had been notified.
Israeli strikes on Beirut and its southern suburbs have reportedly stopped since last Wednesday but intense fighting has continued in southern Lebanon, where ground troops have invaded and Israel says it is creating a buffer zone for security.
Israeli army excavators demolish buildings in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, on Monday. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA
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Q&A
What is the purpose of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports?
The US naval blockade aims to respond to Iran's actions that have effectively shut the strait of Hormuz.
When is the summit in Paris about the strait of Hormuz taking place?
The summit in Paris, co-hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, is scheduled for Friday.
What will the summit in Paris focus on?
The summit will focus on efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz and develop a multinational plan to safeguard international shipping.
What did Macron say about the mission related to the conflict?
Macron stated that the participating countries would work on a strictly defensive mission, separate from the warring parties, to be deployed as soon as possible.
