Middle East crisis live: conflicting reports over proposed one-week ceasefire in Lebanon
US president Donald Trump said that China and the United States are working together and that Beijing is happy that he is opening the strait of Hormuz. “China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also - And the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Donald Trump said the war was “close to over” as he hinted at another round of peace talks in Pakistan in the coming days. Speaking to Fox News, the US president said the conflict was near its end. “I think it’s close to over, yeah, I mean I view it as very close to over. The pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen, citing an Iranian official, has reported that a one-week ceasefire will take effect in Lebanon starting tonight. The move comes after pressure from Iran, according to the official. The truce will coincide with the final week of the temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran. The US military said that it successfully stopped nine vessels from sailing out of Iranian ports during the first 48 hours of a naval blockade against the Islamic republic. “Nine vessels have complied with direction from US forces to turn around and return toward an Iranian port or coastal area,” US Central Command (Centcom), which is responsible for American troops in the Middle East, said in a post on X. Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday at the start of a four-day tour before a possible second round of US-Iran peace talks, his office said in a statement. Sharif will also visit Qatar and Turkey on his trip, which comes after Washington and Tehran held their highest-level talks in decades in Islamabad last weekend. Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes targeted paramedic teams in south Lebanon on Wednesday, killing at least three of them. “The Israeli enemy targeted paramedic teams in the town of Mayfadoun, Nabatiyeh District, three consecutive times,” the ministry said in a statement. Israel’s military chief of staff said he had ordered areas south of Lebanon’s Litani River to be turned into a Hezbollah “kill zone” as troops pressed a major offensive there. “I have ordered that all of the area of south Lebanon up to the Litani (River) line be turned into a Hezbollah terrorist kill zone,” chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said on a visit to troops operating in the area. The pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen, citing an Iranian official, has reported that a one-week ceasefire will take effect in Lebanon starting tonight. The move comes after pressure from Iran, according to the official. The truce will coincide with the final week of the temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Wednesday at 8pm to discuss a possible ceasefire in Lebanon, a senior Israeli official has said. The United States has not formally agreed to the extension of its ceasefire with Iran, a senior official said on Wednesday. “There is continued engagement between the US and Iran to reach a deal,” a senior US official told Reuters. Iran’s foreign ministry has said that Tehran’s right to enrich uranium was “indisputable” although the level of enrichment is “negotiable”. In a weekly press briefing, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy could not be “taken away under pressure or through war”. Finance ministers from more than 10 countries, including the UK, have called for a “swift and lasting” end to the US-Iran war. In a joint statement issued by the UK Treasury, the ministers said the US-Israeli strikes and Iran’s retaliatory attacks have caused “unacceptable loss of life and significant disruption to the global economy and financial markets”.







