The chief of Iran's nuclear agency said Thursday that protecting the country’s right to enrich uranium is "necessary" for any ceasefire talks with the US and Tehran’s forensic chief told state media that more than 3,000 people were killed in Iran in the war that began on February 28.
Mohammad Eslami, who leads the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, made the remarks to journalists including one from The Associated Press in Tehran, Iran, during commemorations for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"It is a part of the necessary [things] that nobody speaks about," Eslami said, referring to the US refusal to acknowledge enrichment as one part of Iran's 10-point plan for a permanent ceasefire.
The US and Iran are due to meet in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, for talks this weekend.
Ceasefire at risk over Israel, Hormuz
Iran's deputy foreign minister said his country will allow ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with "international norms and international law" once the US ends its "aggression" in the Middle East and Israel stops attacking Lebanon.
Saeed Khatibzadeh told the BBC on Thursday that Iran had closed the strait after US ally Israel committed an "intentional grave violation of the ceasefire."
He said, "You cannot have a cake and eat it at the same time. That was the message that Iran sent quite clearly, crystal-clearly, to Washington and to the Oval Office last night."
Khatibzadeh added: “Definitely we are going to provide security for safe passage and it is going to happen after the United States actually withdraws this aggression. Does it mean that Iran is going to control the Strait of Hormuz in terms of letting ship by ship to go through that?
"I think that we have shown to everybody that energy security is pivotal for Iran, is pivotal for this body of water in the Persian Gulf, and we are going to be abided by the international norms and international law."
Mines in Hormuz?
Semiofficial news agencies in Iran published a chart Thursday suggesting the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war.
Meanwhile, in unusually strong language, UN Secretary-General António Guterres "unequivocally" condemned Israeli strikes in Lebanon that killed and injured hundreds Wednesday after the ceasefire was announced, according to a statement by his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric.
Israel has said the ceasefire agreement does not extend to its war in Lebanon with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, although Iran and mediator Pakistan said it does. Sirens sounded in northern Israel early Thursday as Hezbollah claimed it was attacking with rocket fire.
Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel says it killed Hezbollah leader’s aide
Israel said Thursday it killed an aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem in its intense airstrikes that hit Lebanon's capital, Beirut, on Wednesday.
It identified the man killed as Ali Yusuf Harshi, a secretary and nephew to Kassem.
Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.