US-Iran War Highlights: Iran FM Abbas Araghchi leaves Pakistan after meeting Sharif, Munir

Four people were killed on Saturday in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, Reuters said. The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired rockets at Israel, in what is considered the latest challenge to a tenuous, recently-extended ceasefire.

Iran has shown no inclination to hold direct talks with the United States even as the conflict has entered its ninth week. While US President Donald Trump has extended the ceasefire, Iranian sources have reiterated that Tehran won't accept "maximalist demands" by the US to end the war. Read more here. 

According to media reports, Iran Foreign Minister Syed Abbas Araghchi has left Pakistan after meeting PM Shahbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir in Islamabad. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Syed Abbas Araghchi said he has explained his country's principled positions regarding the latest developments related to the ceasefire and the complete end of the "imposed war." "Principally, Iranian side will not accept maximalist demands," an Iranian diplomatic source in Islamabad told Reuters. 

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz.  Seeking out mines is one of the latest tactics announced by the Trump administration to get traffic moving again through the strait, as rising energy prices and wider economic effects pose a political risk, as per a Reuters report. 

Reuters reported Iranian state TV quoting Iran’s top military command as saying US forces would face retaliation if they continued what it called “blockade and piracy” in the region.

The Pakistani PMO on Saturday said that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation met Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Islamabad. The meeting is being attended by Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar and army chief Asim Munir, in addition to the Prime Minister.

Qatar on Saturday condemned in the “strongest terms” the targeting of two Kuwaiti border posts by drones launched from Iraq. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the attack was a “blatant violation of Kuwait’s sovereignty and a serious threat to regional security and stability”.

Al Jazeera reports that Israeli forces have continued their attacks on southern Lebanon this morning. According to the publication, Israeli troops have blown up buildings in the city of Bint Jbeil in Lebanon. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Turkey could consider ​taking part in demining operations in ‌the Strait of Hormuz following a possible peace agreement between Iran and the United States, Reuters reported on Saturday. 
 

Iran has resumed commercial flights from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Saturday for the first time since the conflict with the United States and Israel began about two months ago.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has arrested nearly 240 people in operations across Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces, according to Mehr News Agency.

In Kurdistan province, the IRGC said it detained 11 people, killed one member of a Kurdish armed group, and seized a cache of weapons, while nearly 70 others were arrested in separate raids. In Kermanshah, authorities said 155 people were detained for alleged links to “counter-revolutionary groups”, including four suspected spies tied to Mossad. Police in Tehran also reported arresting an individual accused of sharing information on missile strike locations with hostile networks.

Iran has executed a man accused of working for Israeli intelligence, according to Tasnim News. The report said Erfan Kiani, described as a “hired thug of Mossad”, was involved in vandalism, arson and acts of violence during nationwide protests in the central city of Isfahan.

Tasnim said he was hanged early Saturday after his sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and due legal procedures were completed.

US President Donald Trump said Iran plans to make an offer aimed at satisfying US demands, with peace talks expected to resume in Pakistan.

“They’re making an offer and we’ll have to see,” Trump said, adding he does not yet know the details. He reiterated that any deal must include Iran giving up its enriched uranium and ensuring free movement of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News reported that an unexploded GBU “bunker buster” bomb, dropped during US-Israeli attacks, has been successfully neutralised and removed after being buried about 13 metres beneath a residential area in Yazd province.

A Yazd deputy provincial governor for security told the outlet the bomb had struck a residential area during the war but failed to detonate, remaining lodged deep underground until it was safely defused.

The foreign ministers of Egypt and Pakistan discussed ways to advance the diplomatic path between the United States and Iran during a phone call, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

US-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who was detained in Kuwait over online posts related to the Iran war, has been released and has left the Gulf nation, a US State Department official said. 

The official confirmed on Friday that the 41-year-old journalist had departed Kuwait following his release. 

The guided-missile destroyer USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115) enforced the US blockade on Iranian ports by intercepting an Iranian-flagged vessel attempting to sail toward a port in Iran on April 24.

Images released on April 24 showed two ships that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had seized over alleged US links. Iran claimed it captured the tankers Epaminondas and MSC Francesca on Wednesday, accusing them of attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz without permits.

An American-Kuwaiti journalist has been released after being held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war, a US State Department official said.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to The New York Times, PBS and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on March 3 on charges of spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.