U.S.-Iran peace talks remained in limbo Thursday after Iran seized two commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, with no signs negotiations were close to resuming.
President Trump said on social media Tuesday he was extending the ceasefire indefinitely, hours before it was set to expire, and told Fox News on Wednesday there was “no time pressure” on the truce or setting a new date for talks. Iran dismissed the extension as “meaningless” and said it would not return to negotiations unless the United States lifted its naval blockade on Iranian ports. U.S. Central Command said it has directed 31 vessels to change course since imposing the blockade earlier this month.
Oil again traded above $100 a barrel Thursday as the impasse continued to disrupt shipping through the strait, a chokepoint for roughly a fifth of the world’s crude oil and natural gas. Hours after Trump’s announcement, Iran attacked three commercial vessels in the narrow waterway and seized two, further tightening its grip on one of the world’s most important shipping lanes.
Lebanon is set to pursue an extension of its U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Israel during a second round of talks in Washington on Thursday. The talks follow the first high-level contact between the two countries in decades as Lebanon seeks to stop fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and to secure withdrawal of Israeli troops occupying parts of southern Lebanon. Israel has said it wants to establish a buffer zone to keep Hezbollah from launching strikes into northern Israel.
The Israeli government has called on Lebanon to do more to pressure Hezbollah into disarming. A Hezbollah spokesperson told NPR the group maintained its “right to resist” if Israel refused to withdraw from Lebanon.
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed at least five people, including Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil. Lebanese officials said Khalil and another journalist sheltered in a house after a nearby vehicle was targeted, but the building was then struck; medics said they rescued a wounded colleague who later had to retreat under fire before they could save Khalil, who died under the rubble. The Israeli military said it was responding to an “imminent threat” and was reviewing the incident. Lebanon Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of targeting journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least eight journalists have been killed by Israel in Lebanon since the start of the conflict.
The regional turmoil coincided with a shakeup at the Pentagon: U.S. Navy Secretary John Phelan was dismissed Wednesday. The Pentagon said only that Phelan was “departing the administration, effective immediately,” and that Undersecretary Hung Cao would serve as acting Navy secretary. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Phelan’s dismissal “another example of the instability and dysfunction that have come to define the Department of Defense under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth.”
Phelan, a billionaire investor with no naval experience, was the Navy’s top civilian official overseeing budget, personnel and shipbuilding policy, though he did not run day-to-day operations in the Middle East. His departure adds to a list of more than 30 Pentagon officials ousted since Hegseth’s arrival at the department.
Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan; Kat Lonsdorf and Jawad Rizkallah in Beirut, Lebanon; Rebecca Rosman in London; and Greg Myre in Washington contributed reporting.