Pakistani officials said Tuesday that Islamabad has proposed a second round of talks to the U.S. and Iran, while U.S. Vice President JD Vance earlier said negotiations with Iran “did make some progress" and U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday “we’ve been called by the other side” and “they want to work a deal.”
The Pakistani officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the press.
A senior Hezbollah official on Monday said the Lebanese militant group will not abide by any agreements that may result from direct Lebanon-Israel talks set to start Tuesday in Washington.
Lebanese officials hope to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war that has killed at least 2,089 people in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he doesn’t want a ceasefire and the goal is Hezbollah’s disarmament and a potential peace agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
A U.S. blockade of Iranian ports that began Monday and Iran’s threatened retaliation set up an extraordinary showdown posing serious risks for the global economy and raising the specter of a ceasefire collapse and resumed fighting.
Here is the latest:
IEA predicts Iran war will drive down oil demand more sharply than at any time since the pandemic
The war in Iran will lead to an annual decline in oil demand for the first time since the pandemic, when billions of people were trying to live in isolation, according to the International Energy Agency.
The agency, formed after the 1974 oil crisis, said Tuesday that oil demand is expected to decrease by an average of 80,000 barrels a day this year, a sharp revision from the increase of 850,000 barrels a day that it had forecast before the war began.
The drop-off in March was particularly severe because of attacks on energy infrastructure and the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the IEA, which expects a decline in demand of 1.5 million barrels in the current quarter.
While the biggest cuts in oil usage have initially come from the Middle East and Asia Pacific region, demand destruction is anticipated to spread as oil prices increase and scarcity continues.
South Korea says it will provide humanitarian assistance to Iran
South Korea says it provided $2 million in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon through international organizations and has also decided to provide $500,000 in aid to Iran through the International Red Cross.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it hopes the aid will help ease the humanitarian crisis in affected regions
Red Cross delivers first emergency aid shipment to Iran since war began
The Red Cross delivered its first emergency aid shipment to Iran since the war began over a month ago, which is expected to meet the needs of nearly 25,000 people.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement Tuesday that it dispatched assistance to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, or IRCS, including five truckloads delivered Monday.
Supplies included blankets, jerrycans, tarpaulins, hygiene kits and solar lamps. The remaining aid shipment, comprised of nine aid trucks, will be given to IRCS later this week.
Macron, Starmer to co-chair talks on Strait of Hormuz mission to protect shipping
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will co-chair a conference Friday in Paris, bringing together non-belligerent nations willing to participate in a mission in the Strait of Hormuz “when security conditions allow.”
Other participants will take part via videoconference, Macron’s office said. European and other partners are ready to contribute to a “purely defensive mission aimed at restoring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” the statement said.
France and Britain have been working in recent weeks to set up an operation to escort oil tankers and container ships to help ensure safe passage through the strait.
‘Rich Starry’ reportedly headed for China
The tanker is listed by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control as linked to Iranian shipping. It is flagged to Malawi, one of several landlocked countries often cited in so-called “false flag” operations, in which ships are registered under foreign flags with little or no connection to their owners, complicating oversight.
According to MarineTraffic, a maritime analytics provider, the vessel was headed for Sohar, an Omani port outside the strait. Lloyd’s List, citing ship registry and tracking data, reported it is owned by a Chinese shipping company and ultimately bound for China.
Vessel reported exiting Strait of Hormuz
A tanker that aborted an attempt to exit the Strait of Hormuz on Monday turned around and transited the waterway early Tuesday, in one of the first tests of the U.S. blockade.
The Rich Starry, a chemical and oil tanker, had been waiting off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to shipping data firm Lloyd’s List, which cited data from the energy cargo-tracking firm Vortexa.
The U.S. military said on Monday that the blockade applied only to vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports, and it was not immediately clear whether the Rich Starry had earlier docked in Iran or was carrying Iranian oil. U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to questions about the vessel.
France says Lebanon must be included in ceasefire, calls Israeli strikes ‘intolerable’
French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot reaffirmed Tuesday that Lebanon must be included in the initial ceasefire agreement.
“The ceasefire must absolutely include Lebanon, which under no circumstances can be the scapegoat of the Israeli government,” Barrot said on French radio RFI.
Israel’s strikes on Lebanon are “intolerable,” he said, because they undermine the ceasefire reached between the United States and Iran and because it strengthens militant group Hezbollah.
“Destroying Lebanon, targeting the Lebanese state, does not weaken Hezbollah — quite the opposite, it strengthens it,” Barrot said.
Spain’s prime minister asks China to do more to end war
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he sees China as the main global interlocutor that can help end the war in Iran and other conflicts, such as Ukraine, and urged the Asian giant to do more on the diplomatic front.
“I find it very difficult to find other interlocutors, beyond China, who can resolve this situation created in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz,” he said Tuesday after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Sánchez is in China for his fourth trip in just over three years as Spain looks to strengthen its political and commercial ties with the world’s second-largest economy.
Sánchez said Spain wants to avoid impunity for those who commit crimes and described what has happened in Gaza as “genocide.”
“International law is being violated today, fundamentally by one country: the government of Israel,” he said. “There is also an absolutely illegal response from the Iranian regime regarding a war that we have described from the very beginning as a mistake and an illegality.”
Merz says he supports talks between Israel and Lebanon
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he supports direct peace talks between the Israeli and Lebanese governments, which are set to start Tuesday in Washington.
Merz called for an end to hostilities in southern Lebanon and said militant group Hezbollah must lay down its arms, the German chancellery said in a statement Monday night.
Merz reaffirmed his government’s strong support of a diplomatic understanding between the U.S. and Iran and its readiness to contribute to freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz if the necessary conditions are met, his office said.
Merz also expressed deep concern about developments in the Palestinian territories and said there must be no de facto partial annexation of the West Bank.
Xi floats proposal to promote Middle East peace
Chinese President Xi Jinping floated a four-point proposal for promoting Middle East peace during a meeting Tuesday with Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Chinese official news agency Xinhua reported.
Xi’s proposal calls for upholding the principle of regional peaceful coexistence and respecting national sovereignty while underscoring the principles of coordinating development and security, Xinhua reported.
“Safeguard the authority of the international rule of law. It can’t be ‘use it when it suits us, discard it when it doesn’t,’ and we cannot allow the world to revert to the law of the jungle,” Xi said.
Oil falls and stocks gain on hopes of renewed US-Iran talks
Asian stocks were trading higher tracking and oil fell on Tuesday as expectations rose over a possible second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell 1.7% early Tuesday to $97.37 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was down 0.9% to $98.49 per barrel.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was up 2.3% to 57,804.81. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.7% to 5,968.06.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5% to 25,783.41, while the Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.5% to 4,007.93.
Oil prices continued to pull back on Tuesday from earlier gains.
Pakistan proposes second round of talks in Islamabad
Pakistan has proposed hosting a second round of talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad in the coming days, before the end of the ceasefire, two Pakistani officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the press, said the proposal would depend on whether the parties request a different location.
One of the officials said that, despite ending without an agreement, the first talks were part of an ongoing diplomatic process rather than a one-off effort.
— By Munir Ahmed
