NPR
Deadlock over Iran's nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz cripples peace efforts
+724 words added -456 words removed
Special Series Middle East conflict Conflict in the Middle East has been escalating. These stories provide context for current developments and the history that led up to them.
By
NPR Staff
Iranian worshippers perform their Friday prayers under the portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (second left) and top military officials who were killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign, at the Tehran University campus, in Tehran, Iran, on April 24. Vahid Salemi/AP hide caption
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signaled that efforts between the U.S. and Iran to end the war were deadlocked, amid growing international backlash over the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which has interrupted the world's fuel supply and affected living costs globally.
Middle East conflict A Hezbollah commander describes battling Israel in Lebanon Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Rubio said the latest proposal by Iran was "better than what we thought they were going to submit." But he said that the U.S. administration faced "a deeply fractured" leadership in Iran, complicating efforts to negotiate an end to the war.
Rubio indicated that no progress had been made on the U.S. demand for Iran to give up its nuclear ambition.
Middle East conflict The United Arab Emirates is quitting OPEC oil cartel after nearly 60 years "That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here," Rubio said in the interview.
"We can't let them get away with it," he said. "They're very experienced negotiators, and we have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point."
His comments came amid Iran's diplomatic outreach to Russia, as Iranian officials sought to gain political leverage and foreign support. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, met on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who expressed his support for Iran in its war with the U.S. and Israel.
Araghchi also traveled to Oman and Pakistan for talks over the weekend. delegation's trip when Araghchi left.
Central Command said on social media on Monday.
A boat sails past a tanker anchored on the Strait of Hormuz off the coast Qeshm island, Iran, April 18.
"They cannot normalize nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it," he said.
Traffic has largely been at a standstill in the Strait of Hormuz since Iran moved to exert its control over the strait in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes. The U.S. has also imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, in a move aimed at increasing economic pressure on Iran to agree to Washington's terms for an end to the war.
and Iran remained in flux.
Israel has carried out widespread strikes in Lebanon's south as Hezbollah has fired several drones at Israeli troops.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz blasted the U.S. administration on Monday for lacking a strategy in its war with Iran.
His comments came as Bahrain, a U.S. ally and one of the Gulf countries that had its oil refineries attacked by Iranian drones, convened a high-level meeting at the United Nations to demand that Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz.
While most of the countries sided with Bahrain's call, Russian and Chinese representatives blamed the blockade on the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. The Bahrain-sponsored statement did not mention the U.S. blockade of the passage.
Australia's foreign minister, Penny Wong, began a diplomatic tour in Japan, China and South Korea to discuss "shared energy security" amid growing concerns of export controls by Asian countries.
"Of course I'm concerned about what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz and what's happening in terms of Australia's supplies. We are all concerned, which is why we are making sure we engage with the countries of the region," she said Monday.
She said that Australia and the countries in the region, which get 80% of their oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz, have been "disproportionately affected."
Iraqi political leaders have agreed on a new prime minister months after an election.
The prime minister designate, Ali al-Zaidi, a banker, is a political newcomer.
Zaidi is seen as a compromise candidate after President Trump rejected an Iran-backed former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to lead the country.
The U.S. controls Iraq's supply of dollars and has used that as leverage.
Zaidi is a controversial pick who still faces hurdles before taking the job.
He headed an Iraqi bank that was among a group of financial institutions denied access to dollars two years ago, through the Iraqi banking system, due to concerns of money being channeled to Iran.
The Iraqi parliament has a month to approve Zaidi's cabinet and program for him to form a government.
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− His visit to Pakistan prompted President Trump to say he would send his envoys for talks in Islamabad, only to later cancel the U.S.
+ President Trump said he would send his envoys for talks in Islamabad, only to later cancel the U.S.
− Meanwhile, in a sign of the ongoing standoff in the strategic waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, a guided-missile destroyer blocked an Iranian oil tanker from sailing to an Iranian port, the U.S.
+ Meanwhile, in a sign of the ongoing standoff in the strategic waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S.
+ guided-missile destroyer blocked an Iranian oil tanker from sailing to an Iranian port, the U.S.
− In Lebanon, the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah also appears to be fragile.
+ In Lebanon, the U.S.-brokered ceasefire to pause the fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah looks increasingly fragile.
− Israel has carried out widespread strikes in the south of the country and Hezbollah has fired several drones at Israeli troops.
+ Israel has carried out widespread strikes in the southern Lebanon and Hezbollah has fired several drones at Israeli troops.
− Asghar Besharati/AP hide caption
Here are further developments in the Middle East conflict:
Strait of Hormuz | Lebanon | International reactions | Iraq's new prime minister
Rubio also spoke against Iran's attempt to control the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway through which about 20% of the world's oil passes, primarily from Gulf countries to markets in Asia.
+ Asghar Besharati/AP hide caption
Here are further developments in the Middle East conflict:
Strait of Hormuz | Lebanon | Israel-Iran | International reactions | Iraq's new prime minister
Rubio also spoke against Iran's attempt to control the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway through which about 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes, primarily from Gulf countries to markets in Asia.
− The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon appeared to be fraying on Tuesday as peace talks between the U.S.
+ The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon appears to be fraying as peace talks between the U.S.
− The temporary ceasefire, which came into effect nearly two weeks ago, is still largely in place.
+ Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Tuesday Israel used 450 tons of explosives to destroy two underground tunnels used by Hezbollah.
Almost two weeks ago, the Israeli and Lebanese governments, with U.S.
− No strikes have taken place in Beirut since that truce was agreed in Washington, with U.S.
+ mediation, agreed on a ceasefire that they said would pause the fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
− mediation.
+ Israel has stopped its strikes on areas around Beirut. But elsewhere in Lebanon, attacks have been ramping up from both sides. In southern Lebanon, many residents have had to evacuate their homes again.
− But elsewhere in the country, attacks have been ramping up from both sides.
+ Iran has previously demanded that Israel stop its attacks in Lebanon as a condition to continue negotiating with the U.S.
Israeli officials say the country is prepared to move ahead with defeating Iran, amid the teetering U.S.-Iran negotiation process.
" We've degraded the regime significantly, but we have to finish the job.
− In the south, many had to re-evacuate their homes.
+ Either by means of negotiations or by other means," Ophir Falk, a foreign policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told NPR on Tuesday.
− The talks between the U.S.
+ He echoed the Trump administration's assessment that confusion over who is calling the shots in Tehran has impeded progress for talks.
" We've taken out most of the regime's first- and second-tier leadership, and now the negotiation is being led by D-League team that I'm not sure has authorization or the ability to make decisions," Falk said.
Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the country was waiting for Washington's approval to resume fighting in Iran and to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and other potential leaders.
− and Iran — which have largely stagnated — have been connected to the ceasefire in Lebanon.
+ Joint Israeli-U.S.
− Iran has previously demanded that Israel stop its attacks in Lebanon as a condition to continue negotiating with the U.S.
+ attacks killed his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, around the start of the war.
− The prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is being met with increased criticism by world leaders, with some scrambling to deal with growing discontent over high fuel prices that have pushed up living costs.
+ "We are awaiting a green light from the United States, first and foremost to complete the elimination of the Khamenei lineage — the architect of the plan to destroy Israel — and the successive replacements within the leadership of Iran's terror regime," Katz said in a video posted online by Israel's i24News.
+ He added Israel was ready "to push Iran back into a dark age, by striking key energy and power facilities, and crippling its national economic infrastructure."
The prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is drawing increased criticism from world leaders, with some scrambling to deal with growing public discontent over high fuel prices that have pushed up living costs.
− "The Americans clearly have no strategy.
+ "The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either," Merz told a student forum in the German town of Marsberg on Monday, according to Germany's DPA news agency.
− And the problem with conflicts like this is always that it's not enough just to get in - you also have to get out," Merz told a student forum in the German town of Marsberg on Monday.
He said Iranians were "perhaps very skillfully refusing to negotiate" by having the U.S.
+ "The problem with conflicts like this is always: you don't just have to get in, you have to get out again."
He said, "the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully — or simply very skillfully not negotiating."
In this photo released by Tasnim News Agency, Revolutionary Guard Navy armed men climb aboard the cargo ship MSC Francesca during what state media described as the seizure of one of two vessels accused of violations in the Strait of Hormuz, on April 21.
− delegation travel to Islamabad and concluding the talks with no outcome.
+ Meysam Mirzadeh/Tasnim News Agency/AP hide caption
"An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards," he added, according to Reuters.
− In this photo released by Tasnim News Agency, Revolutionary Guard Navy armed men climb aboard the cargo ship MSC Francesca during what state media described as the seizure of one of two vessels accused of violations in the Strait of Hormuz, on April 21. Meysam Mirzadeh/Tasnim News Agency/AP hide caption
"An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards," Merz said.
− Kat Lonsdorf in Beirut, Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan, and Tina Kraja in Washington, D.C., contributed reporting to this story.
+ Kat Lonsdorf in Beirut, Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan, Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Tina Kraja in Washington, D.C., contributed reporting to this story.