Mideast Conflict

The officials said the U.SS worried that Israel might assassinate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian parliamentary speaker who is leading negotiations with the US, or Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who has also been a public face of the talks. The warnings were communicated through intermediaries, the officials said.

The explosion near the main courthouse complex left 22 others wounded, the ministry said as reported by Syria’s state-run Al-Ikhbariya network.

Iran’s joint military command warned Thursday that all oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz must use its approved routes or face a “forceful response,” again ratcheting up tensions over a waterway crucial for international energy supplies.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators met separately on Wednesday with Qatari and Pakistani mediators, with “positive progress made,” and they agreed to continue discussions, host Qatar said.

Two U.S. envoys arrived in Qatar on Tuesday for talks with mediators about the implementation of an initial deal to end the war in Iran, an official said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts and that they planned to convene Tuesday in Doha, Qatar.

Iran launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” in negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.

As the White House has soured on Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, U.S. President Donald Trump has shocked many in the region by pushing an alternative: Let Syria fight the Iran-backed militant group instead.

The U.S. military said Saturday it had struck multiple targets in Iran at U.S. President Donald Trump’s direction, continuing a string of attacks that have shaken the war’s uneasy ceasefire.

Hezbollah’s leader on Saturday criticized a framework agreement that Israel and Lebanon signed a day earlier to end months of conflict between the Iran-backed militant group and Israel, raising concerns about its effectiveness.

The U.S. struck Iran on Friday in response to a drone attack a day earlier on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Shiite Muslims marked one of the most important days on their calendar Friday with large gatherings in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and other parts of the world to remember the seventh-century killing of Hussein, the grand son of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Several tankers made their way out of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday using a new route promoted by a UN maritime agency. Iran has threatened vessels using the path, which runs along the coast of Oman.

Revived tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz pushed U.S. crude prices below US$70 a barrel briefly on Wednesday even though inventories at the country’s crude storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma have dropped to their lowest in 12 years.

The White House has formally requested US$87.6 billion mostly to replenish the Pentagon after the U.S. war against Iran.