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Middle East crisis live: US blockade of Iranian ports begins as Hezbollah urges Lebanon to pull out of talks with Israel | US-Israel war on Iran
Hezbollah says it will not abide by agreements from Lebanon-Israel talks
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah will not abide by any agreements that may result from direct Lebanon-Israel talks in the US, negotiations it firmly opposes, a senior Hezbollah official has said.
Wafiq Safa, a high-ranking member of Hezbollah’s political council, spoke on the eve of talks 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, meet face-to-face in direct talks.
“As for the outcomes of this negotiation between Lebanon and the Israeli enemy, we are not interested in or concerned with them at all,” Safa told the Associated Press.
Separately, the leader of Hezbollah urged Lebanon to pull out of the talks with Israel. Naim Kassem spoke in a televised address on the eve of the scheduled meeting.
The latest round of fighting was sparked by Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel on 2 March, after the US and Israel attacked Iran.
At least 2,055 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the health ,inistry says, among them 252 women, 165 children and 87 medical workers, while 6,588 others were wounded. More than 1 million people have been displaced.
Lebanon’s government – which says it is committed to disarming Hezbollah – had called for direct talks early on in the war. Last week, Israel announced its approval of talks.
Key events
Three Iran-linked tankers pass through strait of Hormuz – Reuters
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:
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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”.
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Upholding state sovereignty, including the protection of personnel, facilities and institutions.
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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”.
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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.
The day so far
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Oil prices plunged and stocks rose on Tuesday on hopes for a deal to end the war.
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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.
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US vice-president JD Vance accused the Iranian government of engaging in an “act of economic terrorism” by blocking traffic through the Hormuz strait.
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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.
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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.
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The Israeli military said one of its soldiers was killed in combat in southern Lebanon and three others injured.
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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.
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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.
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”.
Patrick Wintour
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:
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.
Ex-players are back to commemorate when sponsors were added to shirts.
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Coventry City chase promotion to Premier League against Blackburn Rovers – live | Championship
Key events
Half-time: Blackburn 0-0 Coventry
Job half-done but not done at all well by Coventry. Rovers really should be leading and there’s work to do to claim the point that Cov need.
45+2 min: Wow, Rovers go so close, and it takes Latibeaudiere’s backside to block what is a goalbound shot from Morishita. Alebiosu has been excellent down the Rovers’ right flank. That’s the last of the half.
45 min: The aforementioned Rudoni’s free-kick, an attempt to get a cross in, is awful. Dear me. This has been nervy.
44 min: A rare Coventry sortie, DaSilva and Mason-Clark involved, the latter knocking wide when the ball drops low for him from a decent cross. They could have done with that Rudoni shot being far better. That’s as good as it’s got.
43 min: Rancour as Ribeiro is fouled, and the ball is called dead when Rovers were in a decent position. Then Morishita wants a throw-in, and is right to ask for it.
Dominic Booth
42 min: More from Dom Booth at Ewood: “The game has drifted into a bit of a lull, perhaps with Coventry safe in the knowledge a draw is good enough to seal promotion and Blackburn content with a point to aid their survival campaign. It has actually been the hosts who have been better in the middle portion of this first half; I’ve been particularly impressed with Ryoya Morishita, who is playing in the right No 10 position in O’Neill’s 3-4-3. Blackburn need to get the ball right to him and Ryan Alebiosu, whose crosses have asked questions of Coventry’s defence. All it takes is one Blackburn goal to wreak worry within the visiting ranks.”
40 min: Long ball out wide aimed for DaSilva, and jeers from the home crowd when the ball runs out.
38 min: Perhaps eyeing a Lampard pep talk, Coventry are passing the ball round in defence. But then they try to hurry it up, and are again offside. Frank Lampard is muttering away to his assistant, Joe Edwards, another Chelsea alumnus.
36 min: Were Blackburn to have a bit more quality in the final third, then they could be out of sight. Coventry are struggling here.
34 min: Blackburn continue to impress. Considering their injuries it’s amazing they are in such trouble. Morishita causes sincere trouble down the inside left position, and it takes Van Ewijk’s fine tackle to stop him meeting a loose ball.
32 min: Mason-Clark offside now. Coventry are a little hurried, anxious.
31 min: Coventry are 30 minutes in, and it’s not been at all easy. They haven’t managed to sustain the pressure they’d like to keep up. Simms gets to the byline, and Mason-Clark is the target. Atcheson, who has been excellent so far, makes another intervention.
28 min: Ohashi’s header hits the bar, Latibeaudiere failing to climb with the striker. Another fine cross from Alebiosu, though the Japanese striker is penalised for a push. That looked soft.
26 min: Coventry get a big chance, 36 passes completed and Rudoni has the chance to shoot. He hits the side-netting. That was poor, considering.
25 min: Matt Grimes, the playmaker, is dropping deep to try and force the issue, though Rovers’ Gardner-Hickman is following him everywhere.
22 min: Van Ewijk tries to set up a Cov attack from wing-back but Blackburn so go on the counter with Atcheson firing in a cross. Rushworth has been the busier keeper by far.
20 min: Coventry have been a little nervy here. Rovers are looking solid and full of adventure. They are playing for their lives. Coventry only need a point and that may not suit them. Lampard is a coach who likes his teams to attack.
18 min: More Cov nostalgia, from John Brennan: “My friend for reasons unknown to himself even had a Coventry City gear bag in college that he used to carry his clothes for the weekend. Every time I saw it, it was incongruous to me. Anyway, Coventry being back in the Premier League is great. My parents got Sky into the house for Christmas in 1999 and one of the first games I watched at home was Coventry beating Arsenal 3-2 with Robbie Keane scoring a delightful goal with the outside of his boot. That team with Keane & Cedric Roussel upfront and the two Moroccans of Chippo and Hadji in midfield were a fun watch back then.”
16 min: Neil Lavery gets in touch: “Hello John, 7,000 away fans at Ewood for a game that could decide promotion for them? How odd. Back in 2023 when Burnley were going for the title there that stand only held 2,000-ish…”
They must have built a bigger stand or something.
Dominic Booth
15 min: Dom Booth is at Ewood. “You wouldn’t have to be a football expert to sit in Ewood Park tonight and decipher which team were top of the table and which were battling relegation. And that’s based on the start both teams have made as well as the difference in supporter numbers. The vast swathes of empty seats in the home sections tell their own story just as the packed Coventry away end reflects a club on the rise. “Where we you when you were sh*t?” is the latest jibe from the Rovers fans – not that the Sky Blues supporters probably heard it, such is the din they are making. And their team are responding on the pitch with a confident start.”
14 min: There’s a delay as Onyeka, the Brentford loanee, goes down with a head injury.
13 min: Real let-off for Coventry as Ohashi gets a free header on goal. Nobody was marking him from the cross. Rovers are playing the better team. Ryan Alebiosu played a fine cross.
11 min: More Ohashi involvement, and he’s clear on goal, only for offside to haul him back. Carl Rushworth makes the save in any case.
10 min: Worrying moment for Ohashi when he is called back for a high kick. It was nothing more than a foul so no worries there. He’s walking on eggshells a bit, though.
9 min: Good historic info from Sky: it was at Ewood Park that Coventry, under Jimmy Hill, achieved promotion in April 1967. There’s a statue of Jim outside the Coventry Building Society Arena.
8 min: A long ball is aimed for Ellis Simms, but Atcheson clears from the Rovers defence. An early booking, for Rovers’ Ohashi when he loses the ball and then smashes into Grimes.
6 min: Great noise, and it’s coming from both sets of fans. Remember: Blackburn have plenty to play for. They can get to 51 points. That could be enough.
4 min: It’s all Coventry, with Matt Grimes’s cross causing havoc in the Rovers defence. They’re pinning back their opponents, and their back three are dominating possession.
3 min: First attack of the game from Coventry, Mason-Clarke seizing on a loose ball and then shooting. The shot is blocked.
Away we go at Ewood
1 min: There’s over 7,000 Cov fans here. A word from the club’s saviour, Mark Robins, now managing Stoke. Very nice about Doug King, the owner who removed him.
“They’re going up. I’m really pleased for them. Frank has done a fantastic job. He took over from me in difficult circumstances and he’s taken it to a different level. They will go up and they’ve got the stadium now and it looks certainly a lot more stable. Not only that, they’ve got a really good team, a top manager and they’ve done fantastically well.
“The owner has been incredible there, to be fair, and what he’s done for the club, the city and what plans they have when they eventually get up, I’m sure they’ll spend money and try to stay in there.”
The teams take to the field at Ewood Park. It’s all Coventry, the Jolly Boating song ringing out. It’s a bit more sparse in the home end, despite efforts from those in Warwickshire to get hold of tickets. The hill behind the Darwen End may well be full of Sky Blue, too.
Frank Lampard’s advice to his players: “Stay calm in your heads but not in your legs.”
Snappy.
Phil Rebbeck gets in touch: “In the early 1990s I was a university student living in Coventry and used to go to Highfield Road every now and then. The Sky Blues were away to local rivals Aston Villa on the last day of the season, still needing something out of the game. They contrived to concede a goal in the first minute and lost the game 2-0.
“However, results elsewhere went their way with Luton losing to already relegated Notts County. So Coventry managed another great escape on the last day and the three relegated teams were the aforementioned Luton and Notts County joined by a particularly hapless West Ham United.
“Still have a soft spot for them and will welcome them back in the Premier League being a Fulham fan!”
For Rovers, Eiran Cashin returns, replacing Harry the benched Pickering. Ryoya Morishita comes in for Nathan Redmond, also a substitute. Yuki Ohashi replaces Mathias Jorgensen as striker.
For Cov, two changes from Frank Lampard: Bobby Thomas into a back three while Ellis Simms is in for Haji Wright in the forward line. Brandon Thomas-Asante drops to the bench.
The teams
Blackburn: Toth, Atcheson, McLoughlin (c), Cashin, Alebiosu, Gardner-Hickman, Baradji, Montgomery, Ribeiro, Morishita, Ohashi. Subs: Pears, Pickering, De Neve, Hedges, Afolayan, O’Riordan, Redmond, Forshaw, Jorgensen
Coventry: Rushworth; Latibeaudiere, Thomas, Kitching; Van Ewijk, Onyeka, Grimes, Dasilva; Rudoni, Simms, Mason-Clark. Subs: Wilson, Woolfenden, Bidwell, Kesler-Hayden, Eccles, Thomas-|Asante, Torp, Haji Wright, Esse.
Coventry need just a draw, remember. The away tickets for this game are the hottest tickets in town since 1987 or The Specials reunion.
Blackburn are not out of the woods, of course. The picture at the bottom is made cloudier by the potential/probable points deduction headed West Brom’s way. Michael O’Neill, also the Northern Ireland manager, of course, has a fight on his hands. Tuesday’s defeat to Southampton, and no win since Good Friday has made things uncomfortable.
The excellent Nick Ames on the Championship promotion race and beyond.
In 2001, Cov’s run of being in the top division since 1967 came to an end after a defeat to Aston Villa. The Sky Blues had stayed up on the final day 10 times over that time though this was the penultimate games of the season. They closed out by being relegated alongside Bradford in a 0-0 draw.
Teams that day:
Aston Villa: James, Delaney, Wright, Southgate, Barry, Boateng, Taylor, Merson, Staunton, Dublin, Vassell. Subs: Angel, Ginola, Hendrie, Stone, Enckelman.
Coventry: Kirkland, Williams, Breen, Quinn, Telfer, Eustace, Carsley, Hadji, Hall, Bellamy, Hartson. Subs: Hedman, Edworthy, Zuniga, Strachan, Bothroyd.
Preamble
It was in 2001 that Coventry last played Premier League football. It’s been an odyssey since, taking in a new stadium, exile from that new stadium, relegation to the fourth tier and financial brinkmanship. Now, after a couple of near misses, they are on the way back. It may already be all but done but winning (or even drawing) at Blackburn would confirm it for Frank Lampard’s team.
Kick-off at Ewood Park is at 8pm BST. Join me.
Christine Sharman demanded her neighbour move his car, before lunging at his wife and punching her in the chest.
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