US-Iran ceasefire talks stall after Hizbollah rejects Lebanon-Israel truce

[DUBAI/WASHINGTON] There was no sign of progress in ceasefire talks between the US and Iran after the worst burst of violence in weeks and as the Teheran-backed Hizbollah militia rejected on Thursday (Jun 4) a US-brokered truce in Lebanon.

US President Donald Trump said that ceasefire talks are in the “final” stages. Earlier, Iran’s foreign minister said the negotiations had stalled. On Wednesday, Iran fired missiles and drones at Kuwait and Bahrain, killing one person and injuring dozens at Kuwait’s main airport, after the US struck an oil tanker headed to the Islamic Republic.

In Lebanon, Hizbollah militants said that they refused to abide by the conditions of a ceasefire announced by the US State Department only hours before. At least eight people were killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. And Israel’s military said that Hizbollah launched several rockets towards its soldiers, with no injuries reported.

Asked by reporters on Thursday in the Oval Office about Hizbollah’s rejection of the ceasefire, Trump said “they didn’t reject me” and claimed “they called us” to discuss a cessation of hostilities.

Despite the continued fighting, oil prices slipped after three days of gains amid investor optimism in the wake of the US announcement of the Lebanon truce deal. Israel’s continued military strikes there have become a major obstacle as Trump seeks to extricate the US from the Iran war that he started.

Trump has repeatedly claimed a deal is close even as Iran refuses give in to his demands on its nuclear programme and his terms of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, the waterway carried a fifth of world oil supplies, but they have been largely cut off since the US and Israel struck Iran on Feb 28. Industry officials have warned prices could spike again as inventories are drawn down.

On Thursday, Trump said in a social media post that he’s “right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran”. He did not elaborate on the talks, using the post to blast a vote by the Republican-led House of Representatives to halt the war.

While it will not end the US military campaign against Iran, the move is a reflection of the increasing unpopularity of the conflict in the US and worries from Trump’s own party about the conflict’s impact on the midterm elections.

Trump posted just hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said “no tangible progress has been achieved in the negotiation process” with the US, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

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Among the conditions Iran has set was an end to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, where its forces have launched a major drive to oust Iran-backed Hizbollah.

“For Iran, the question is ‘Will Trump restrain Israel?’” said Nate Swanson, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former US official who worked on Iran at the State Department and White House National Security Council. “If he can’t restrain them in Lebanon, how can he restrain them in Iran?”

On Thursday, Hizbollah chief Naim Qasem dismissed the US-brokered deal between Israel and the Lebanese government as “absurd”. The group, which is not a party to the negotiations, will not accept linking its presence in Lebanon with stopping the war and Israel’s withdrawal, he said in a letter. Clashes continued in southern Lebanon. BLOOMBERG