Trump has not set a timeline for extension of Iran ceasefire, source says
US President Donald Trump has not set a timeline for the extension of a ceasefire with Iran, a source briefed on the matter said on Wednesday, reported Reuters.
Macron says French peacekeeper wounded in Lebanon attack over the weekend has died
French President Emmanuel Macron says a French peacekeeper wounded in an attack in Lebanon over the weekend has died of his wounds.
Macron posted on X that the soldier died in France on Wednesday, a day after being transferred from Lebanon.
Another French peacekeeper was killed in the attack on Saturday, in which the force came under small arms fire in southern Lebanon. Macron blamed the attack on Hezbollah, which has denied being behind it.
One of three ships fired at by Iran may have been bound for Gujarat
One of three commercial vessels fired upon by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday may have been headed for Gujarat, according to initial shipping data.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards opened fire on the vessels as they transited the strategic waterway, with two ships later seized and at least one sustaining damage, though no casualties were reported.
Of the vessels targeted in the Strait of Hormuz incident on Wednesday, container ship Epaminondas was signalling Mundra port in Gujarat as its destination, according to vessel-tracking data from maritime intelligence firm MarineTraffic.
The ship is sailing under the flag of Liberia and "is currently located in the Oman Gulf", it said in an 18.30 IST update.
US halts Iraq dollar cash shipment after militia strikes, sources say
The United States has halted a shipment of about $500 million in cash bound for Iraq and suspended parts of its security cooperation with Baghdad, in a move aimed at pressuring the Iraqi government over the actions of Iran-backed militias, Iraqi sources told Reuters.
The measures were taken as the fallout from the Iran war increasingly pulls Iraq into the conflict, with Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq launching repeated drone and rocket attacks on U.S. facilities and neighbouring states in support of Tehran.
The conflict has also been accompanied by U.S. strikes on armed groups in Iraq, adding pressure on Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's government as it tries to balance tensions between Washington and Tehran on Iraqi soil.
Five Iraqi sources said the move was limited to shipments of physical U.S. currency, between $450 million and $500 million, that are periodically flown into Baghdad.
The cash is mainly used to meet retail foreign exchange demand, including for travel, medical treatment and overseas study, while electronic dollar transfers used for imports and trade remain unaffected, an economic adviser to Sudani said. The U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move was first reported by the Wall Street journal.
Lebanon hopes for extension of ceasefire at Washington meeting
Lebanese and Israeli envoys will meet for the second time in two weeks in Washington on Thursday, building on nascent contacts between the states, with Lebanon hoping for the extension of a shaky ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. The 10-day, US-mediated ceasefire is set to expire on Sunday.
A Lebanese official said Thursday's meeting would be focused on two agenda items: extending the ceasefire and exploring a date for expanded negotiations beyond the ambassadorial level, in which Lebanon would push for an Israeli withdrawal, the return of Lebanese detained in Israel and a delineation of the land border. Lebanon's position is that a ceasefire extension is a prerequisite for talks to move to the expanded negotiations, the official said.
Hezbollah, which says the Lebanon ceasefire was the fruit of Iranian pressure, has condemned Beirut for seeking talks with Israel, reflecting wider splits with the government that has sought Hezbollah's peaceful disarmament for a year.
Iran seizes two vessels for maritime violations
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy seized two vessels for what it described as maritime violations and transferred them to Iranian shores, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Guards said the ships, which they identified as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminodes, were detained for "operating without the required authorisation and for manipulating navigation systems", adding that this endangered maritime safety.
Drone strike on eastern Lebanon kills 1
One person was killed in a drone strike on eastern Lebanon on Wednesday.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the drone strike on the village of Jabbour also wounded two people.
The Israeli military denied that it had struck in that area.
Since a 10-day ceasefire went into effect Friday, there have been several Israeli strikes while Hezbollah claimed its first attack Tuesday.
Iranian adviser says Trump ceasefire means 'nothing'
A senior Iranian adviser says US President Donald Trump's ceasefire extension means "nothing" and is "certainly a ploy to buy time for a surprise strike".
Mahdi Mohammadi is an adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
In a post in Persian on X, Mohammadi says the continuation of Trump's "siege" is "no different from bombardment" and must be "met with a military response". He adds: "The time for Iran to take the initiative has come."
The US Navy has been blockading the Strait of Hormuz and its forces boarded an Iranian-flagged cargo ship on Sunday, after Iran had effectively closed the busy shipping channel for weeks.
Israeli military says it's unaware of strike in Lebanon
The Israeli military said it was unaware of a strike in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Wednesday after Lebanon's state news agency reported an Israeli drone had killed one person and wounded two others in the area.
The state-run National News Agency said the incident had taken place on the outskirts of al-Jbour in Lebanon's western Bekaa Valley.
Hopes of peace talks in Pakistan are fading
US President Donald Trump said he would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran to allow for further peace talks, although it was not clear on Wednesday if Iran or Israel, the US ally in the two-month war, would agree.
Trump said in a statement on social media the U. had agreed to a request by Pakistani mediators "to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal ... and discussions are concluded, one way or the other."
Pakistan's leaders have hosted peace talks in Islamabad to end a war that has killed thousands of people and shaken the global economy.
But even as he announced what appeared to be a unilateral ceasefire extension, Trump also said he would continue the US Navy's blockade of Iran's trade by sea, considered an act of war by Iran.
There was no response early on Wednesday to Trump's announcement from senior Iranian officials, although some initial reactions from Tehran suggested Trump's comments were being treated skeptically.
Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said Iran had not asked for a ceasefire extension and repeated threats to break the US blockade by force. An adviser to Iran's lead negotiator, the speaker of parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Trump's announcement carried little weight and may be a ploy. Trump's wartime rhetoric has veered between extremes. In an expletive-filled threat against Iran only two weeks ago he promised that a "whole civilization will die tonight", while at other times he has appeared keen to end the violence and market uncertainty.
With his announcement, Trump again pulled back at the last moment from his threats to bomb Iran's power plants and bridges. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and others have condemned those threats, noting international humanitarian law forbids attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
British military says Iran's Revolutionary Guard has fired on ship in Hormuz
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard opened fire Wednesday on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, damaging the ship and further raising the stakes as planned ceasefire talks in Pakistan failed to materialise.
The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the attack happened around 7:55 am in the strait and targeted a container ship.
The UKMTO said a Guard gunboat did not hail the ship before firing.
It said no one was hurt and there was no environmental impact from the attack.
Iran did not immediately acknowledge the assault.
It comes after the US seized an Iranian container ship after shooting it this past weekend and boarded an oil tanker associated with Iran's oil trade in the Indian Ocean.
One dead in Israeli drone attack in Lebanon’s western Bekaa
An Israeli drone attack targeting the outskirts of al-Jabbour area in western Bekaa has killed one person.
The air attack left two people injured, according to the Reuters report.
Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel, Mizan reports
Iran executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence service and passing sensitive information, the judiciary's news outlet Mizan reported on Wednesday.
Mizan identified the man as Mehdi Farid, saying he had held a position in a civil defence unit within a sensitive organisation and had used his access to gather and transmit information to Israel's Mossad.
His death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and carried out after legal procedures were completed, Mizan said.
Vance will not be travelling to Pakistan on Tuesday: White House
The White House said in a statement that in light of the president's announcement that he was extending the ceasefire and awaiting a proposal from Iran, Vice President JD Vance and the US negotiating delegation would not be travelling to Pakistan on Tuesday.
