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Middle East crisis live: US fires on two Iranian-flagged oil tankers it claims tried to violate blockade; US to mediate Israel-Lebanon talks | US-Israel war on Iran
US fires on Iranian-flagged oil tankers it claims were trying to violate US blockade
The US Central Command (Centcom) claims it has struck two “unladen” Iranian-flagged oil tankers it said were attempting to violate the US blockade by entering an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.
“U.S. forces disabled M/T Sea Star III and M/T Sevda, May 8, prior to both vessels entering an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman in violation of the ongoing U.S. blockade,” it said in a statement on social media.
Centcom claimed it had “disabled both tankers after firing precision munitions into their smokestacks”. The statement added that US forces had also disabled a third Iranian-flagged vessel on Wednesday. “All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran.”
On Thursday Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas. The US insisted it struck in retaliation.
Key events
Trump said Friday that he expects a response from Iran soon as negotiations continue on a potential proposal to end the US-Israel war.
Trump told pool reporters that he expects to hear from Iran “tonight” on a potential deal that could end the fighting.
More details could be forth coming as Trump wraps up his remarks to pool reporters.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that the department is prepared to take financial actions against those providing weapons to Iran’s military, in a statement shared by Reuters.
Bessent’s latest comments came after the US Treasury announced sanctions against 10 individuals and companies, including many based in China and Hong Kong.
“Under President Trump’s decisive leadership, we will continue to act to Keep America Safe and target foreign individuals and companies providing Iran’s military with weapons for use against U.S. forces,” said Bessent.
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Friday that having control over the strait of Hormuz is an asset “on the scale of an atomic bomb”.
“Indeed, having in one’s hands a position that allows you to influence the global economy with a single decision is a major opportunity,” he said.
The US Treasury has announced sanctions against 10 individuals and companies, including several in China and Hong Kong, for aiding efforts by Iran’s military to secure weapons and raw materials used to build Tehran’s Shahed drones.
The Treasury move, first reported by Reuters, comes days before Donald Trump plans to travel to China for a meeting with president Xi Jinping and as efforts to end the war in Iran have stalled.
These sanctions are part of a broader pressure campaign by the US against Iran’s ability to finance, manufacture, and transport military supplies.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told his United Arab Emirates counterpart on Friday that US-Iran talks needed to be supported to prevent a resumption of hostilities in the Middle East.
“The Russian side emphasized the need to focus on supporting the ongoing negotiations between Iran and the USA,” a foreign ministry statement said of Lavrov’s telephone conversation with UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The statement said Russia did not want “to jeopardize the prospects for stabilization by resuming hostilities.”
Qatar prime minister calls for Iran talks in meeting with Vance
Qatar’s prime minister called for renewed diplomacy on an agreement with Iran as he met with US vice-president JD Vance in Washington earlier.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with Vance and discussed Pakistani-led efforts to broker a permanent peace amid a shaky ceasefire.
The Qatari prime minister “stressed the need for all parties to engage with the ongoing mediation efforts, to pave the way for addressing the root causes of the crisis through peaceful means and dialogue, leading to a comprehensive agreement that achieves lasting peace in the region,” the Qatari foreign ministry said on X.
US to mediate two days of talks between Israel and Lebanon next week
The United States will facilitate two days of “intensive talks” between Israel and Lebanon on 14-15 May, the US state department has said.
The talks will be aimed at establishing long-term border security, and reaching a “comprehensive”, lasting peace agreement to prevent further conflict, the state department said.
They will also seek to address Hezbollah’s ability to “entrench and enrich themselves”, which has allowed the group to “undermine the authority of the Lebanese state, and endanger Israel’s northern border”.
As we reported earlier, US secretary of state Marco Rubio met the Italian prime minister Giorgia Miloni in Rome on Friday at a moment of unusual strain between Trump and Italy, driven largely by the war against Iran.
Rubio also met with Pope Leo for a meeting he described as “cordial and important” and said he had explained the US position on Iran, in a fence-mending visit to Rome after sharp disagreements over the US-Israel war on Iran and Trump’s criticisms of the pontiff.
Here’s the clip.
US Central Command said in a post on X that its forces have redirected 57 commercial vessels and disabled 4 others to prevent them from entering or leaving Iranian ports.
Two of the disabled ships were oil tankers struck by a US navy jet earlier on Friday, Centcom said in an earlier update.
Israeli strikes kill five people in Lebanon, as Hezbollah fires rockets at northern Israel and Israeli military base
Lebanese authorities reported five people including a rescuer killed in fresh Israeli strikes.
The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that an Israeli raid on the town of Toura in the southern Tyre district killed four people, including two women, and wounded eight others in a preliminary toll.
Lebanon’s civil defence said earlier that one of its members was killed in an Israeli attack on the south.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah has said it launched missiles at a military base in Israel earlier on Friday in response to Israeli attacks that killed a top commander.
In a statement, the Iran-backed militant group said the missiles targeted a base south of the Israeli city of Nahariya “in response to the Israeli enemy’s violation of the ceasefire, the targeting of Beirut’s southern suburbs and the attacks that affected villages and civilians in southern Lebanon”.
Air raid sirens had sounded earlier in several cities in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military, which said it “intercepted one launch, and the additional launches fell in open areas”, adding that no injuries were reported.
Israel has kept up its attacks on Lebanon despite a truce agreed last month, and its strike on the capital’s southern suburbs on Wednesday – its first there in nearly a month – killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
Donald Trump has announced a three-day ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine from 9 to 11 May.
The US president said on social media the ceasefire would include a suspension of all “kinetic activity” and a swap of 1,000 prisoners from each country. It was confirmed by both sides.
Trump said in his post: “Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War,” adding that there was constant progress in talks to end the conflict.
Russia had previously announced a two-day unilateral ceasefire to mark its 9 May second world war Victory Day on Saturday. Ukraine previously said that it too had offered a truce but that this had been ignored by Moscow.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, confirmed Trump’s announcement and the prisoner swap on Friday night, writing on Telegram: “We received Russia’s agreement to conduct a prisoner exchange in the format of 1,000 for 1,000. A ceasefire regime must also be established on May 9, 10, and 11.”
Zelenskyy later wrote on X: “In recent days, there have been many appeals and signals regarding the setup for tomorrow in Moscow in connection with our Ukrainian long-range sanctions. The principle of symmetry in our actions is well known and has been clearly communicated to the Russian side.
“An additional argument for Ukraine in determining our position has always been the resolution of one of the key humanitarian issues of this war – namely, the release of prisoners of war. Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be brought home.”
He added: “I thank the president of the United States and his team for their productive diplomatic involvement. We expect the United States to ensure that the Russian side fulfills these agreements.”
Ukraine had never before said it would abide by Moscow’s call to briefly halt strikes, lambasting Putin for wanting to pause fighting only so he could stage Saturday’s annual military parade on Red Square.
Kyiv said Moscow had ignored a Ukrainian proposal to halt fighting earlier this week – a counter-offer for a short-term ceasefire. Zelenskyy had cast it as a test of whether the Kremlin was serious about providing a brief respite in the four-year war.
Russia on Friday confirmed the truce and the POW swap. Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said: “I confirm the acceptability for the Russian side of the initiative just proposed by US president Donald Trump, concerning a ceasefire for a prisoner-of-war exchange between Russia and Ukraine.”
Russia had threatened a massive strike on the heart of Kyiv if Ukraine disrupted the Victory Day parade, repeatedly urging foreign diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital beforehand.
Moscow and Kyiv have both accused each other of violating previous ceasefires that each has separately declared.
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