US, Iran prepare for peace talks as Israel, Hezbollah trade more fire

DUBAI, April 10: With the ceasefire in Iran still shaky, US Vice President JD Vance headed to Pakistan for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Many issues could derail the truce and the negotiations aimed at making a broader deal to stop the fighting permanently.
Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed that the talks set for Saturday would not happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon.
And US President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that Iran has no leverage except to restrict ship traffic in the strait, through which 20 per cent of the world’s traded oil once passed.
Kuwait, meanwhile, said it was targeted by seven drone attacks since Thursday that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies in the region. Though the Guard denied launching any assault, it has carried out attacks across the Mideast in the past that it did not claim.
Israel’s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does not include a pause in its fighting with Hezbollah has threatened to sink the deal. The militant group joined the war in support of its backer, Iran.
The day the truce was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people. It was the deadliest day in the country since the war began February 28.
On Friday, Israeli warplanes struck near a state security office in the town of Nabatieh, killing 13 officers. Israeli forces said they also hit about 10 rocket launchers in Lebanon that had fired toward northern Israel. (AP)