No let-up in Israeli attacks on Lebanon as US-Iran ceasefire teeters
Israel’s relentless Lebanon strikes threaten to shatter the fragile truce as peace talks loom
Israel bombed more targets in Lebanon on Thursday, putting the Middle East ceasefire in further jeopardy after the biggest Israeli attacks of the war on its neighbour killed more than 250 people and threatened to torpedo US President Donald Trump’s truce.
In Pakistan, authorities locked down the capital Islamabad in anticipation of the war’s first peace talks, cutting off all access to a 3km (2-mile) zone around the five-star luxury Serena Hotel. Both the US and Iranian delegations are expected to stay at the hotel, which told all guests to check out until Sunday as it had been “requisitioned” for “an important event”.
But there was no sign Iran had lifted its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the worst disruption to global energy supplies in history. Tehran said there would be no deal as long as Israel was striking Lebanon.
In the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, just a single oil products tanker and five dry bulk carriers sailed through a strait that accommodated 140 ships a day before the war.
The spot price that European and Asian refineries pay now for oil rose further to record levels near US$150 a barrel, with even higher prices for some products such as jet fuel.
Israel, which invaded Lebanon last month in parallel with the war on Iran to root out the Iran-aligned armed group Hezbollah, says its actions there are not covered by the ceasefire announced late on Tuesday by Trump.