The Japan Times - New Israel-Lebanon talks planned as US awaits Iran response to peace deal

The war in Lebanon broke out in parallel with the US-Israeli campaign against Hezbollah's backer Iran, with Washington still waiting on Thursday for Tehran to respond to its latest proposed deal to put a long-term stop to the wider Middle East conflict and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.

A US State Department official confirmed on Thursday that the new Israel-Lebanon talks would take place on May 14 and 15.

It will be the third meeting in recent months between the two countries, which have technically been at war for decades and have no diplomatic relations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that a peace deal between the two sides was "eminently achievable", insisting militant group Hezbollah was the sticking point, rather than any issue between the two governments.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A ceasefire between the two countries and including Hezbollah was extended after the last round of talks in Washington, but Israel has kept up its strikes on the group, which has claimed attacks of its own on Israeli forces occupying parts of Lebanon's south.

Israeli strikes continued on Thursday, state media and AFP correspondents reported, a day after one such attack in Beirut's southern suburbs killed a senior Hezbollah commander.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the strike that "no terrorist is immune. Anyone who threatens the State of Israel will die because of his actions."

- Ships, crew stranded -

The wider Middle East war, launched by the US and Israel in late February, has seen Iran respond with attacks across the Middle East and impose a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Gulf oil and gas industries and a strategic trade route.

Around 1,500 ships and 20,000 international crew are now trapped in the Gulf region because of the conflict, the secretary general of the UN's International Maritime Organization, Arsenio Dominguez, told a Maritime Convention of the Americas meeting in Panama.

Trump had this week briefly launched a naval operation to force open the strait to commercial vessels, only to stand it down within hours, citing progress on negotiations with Iran.

"We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it's very possible that we'll make a deal," Trump said on Wednesday, adding his now habitual threat to return to bombing if Tehran refuses to meet US demands.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei has said Tehran will communicate its position to mediator Pakistan "after finalising its views".

But, inside Iran, many civilians were cynical about the talks.

"Neither side in these negotiations is really capable of reaching an agreement," 42-year-old photographer Shervin told AFP reporters in Paris, messaging from Tehran.

"This is another one of Trump's games; otherwise, why are so many warships and military forces being sent toward Iran?"

- Oil prices fall -

According to a report from US network NBC News, Trump's U-turn came after Saudi Arabia -- whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly talked directly to Trump -- refused to allow US forces to use its airspace and bases for the Hormuz operation.

Asked by AFP, a Saudi source close to the government denied the report.

US news outlet Axios, citing two officials, reported that both Tehran and Washington were close to agreement on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.

Trump has claimed that Iran's leadership is divided in the wake of the deaths of many senior figures in US and Israeli strikes.

But President Masoud Pezeshkian said Thursday he had met with the country's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment in early March.

"What struck me most during this meeting was the vision and the humble and sincere approach of the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution," Pezeshkian said, in a video broadcast by state television.

Meanwhile, oil prices fell again on optimism for a peace deal, tumbling by five percent on Thursday -- after having fallen around 10 percent over the previous two days.

International benchmark Brent North Sea crude and the main US contract, West Texas Intermediate, were still higher than before the war, but below the symbolic $100 level.

Markets have been thrown into turmoil by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime carries a fifth of the world's oil and LNG trade as well as much of its fertiliser.

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Y.Mori--JT