Al Jazeera

By Heba Habib and Zaid Sabah

        US President Donald Trump said he had “very good talks” with Iran, adding that “it’s very possible we’ll make a deal”.

    Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said a US proposal to end the war is still “under review”, and Tehran will convey its response to mediator Pakistan after “finalising its views”, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.

Israeli air strike targets Erzi town in south Lebanon

    The National News Agency reports that the Israeli military carried out an overnight air strike targeting the town of Erzi in the Sidon district of southern Lebanon.

After deal with Iran, US expected to refocus attention on Gaza

    A high-ranking Egyptian diplomat has told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that a resolution on the Iranian issue will directly impact negotiations about the future of Gaza.

    The unnamed diplomat noted that the war on Iran has overshadowed the US’s work on Gaza. But he predicted that the US would push for negotiations on Gaza once an agreement with Iran is finalised in the coming days.

    He added that this would also come in response to mediator demands for increased pressure on Israel to ensure its commitment to implementing the first phase of the “ceasefire” agreement with Hamas.

Iran sets strict red lines on nuclear programme and Hormuz sovereignty

By Almigdad Alruhaid

Reporting from Tehran, Iran

    Right now, Iran’s position is becoming increasingly clear when it comes to negotiation.

    They are setting a very firm red line, and on top of that, on the nuclear file, they are saying that the nuclear enrichment programme is non-negotiable.

    When it comes to the sticking point, their existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium, they are resisting handing over that stockpile outside of the country.

    The second red line is sovereignty and the military position in the region; the sovereignty on the Strait of Hormuz is becoming one of the main issues on the negotiating table.

    We are seeing the Iranians are tightening their control. They are setting new protocol, new mechanism for controlling that strategic chokepoint for each vessel that is to pass through this strategic chokepoint.

    Vessels have to coordinate with the IRGC Navy to receive their transit permit, and also to pay a toll or fees to the IRGC Navy, and this is one of the main strategic procedures for the past few days when it comes to the escalation on that strategic waterway.

    A French aircraft carrier strike group is on the way to the southern Red Sea in advance of a potential deployment to the Strait of Hormuz.

    French President Emmanuel Macron said a multinational mission stands ready to ensure safe navigation in the vital shipping lane, which has been blockaded by both Iran and the US.

Four Israeli soldiers injured in south Lebanon drone attack

    The Israeli military says an explosive drone attack has injured four soldiers in southern Lebanon.

    One of the soldiers was severely injured, and three others were lightly injured, according to the statement.

    The soldiers were evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital, and their families have been notified.

Image shows Israeli soldier in new act of desecration of Christian statue in Lebanon

    A photograph has emerged showing an Israeli soldier desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon.

    In the photo, which was shared on social media, the soldier is seen pressing a cigarette to the mouth of the Virgin Mary statue in the predominantly Christian town of Debel.

    Debel is the same town where Israeli soldiers destroyed a statue of Jesus Christ with a sledgehammer last month.

    The Times of Israel media outlet reports that the Israeli military said it will take action when the soldier is identified.

    According to the outlet, the latest image to surface of an act of desecration by Israeli forces “joins several other occurrences in which footage has been published of Israeli soldiers – oftentimes by the troops themselves – destroying or looting property”.

    The regional bloc has entered what officials describe as a “stress test decade”, facing issues stemming from the Iran conflict as so many member states are heavily reliant on energy from the Gulf.

Energy crisis, Middle East conflict in focus at ASEAN leaders summit in Cebu

    The global fuel crisis and the war in the Middle East are expected to dominate discussions of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc, who are meeting on the Philippine island of Cebu.

    The meeting on ⁠Thursday and Friday will bring together leaders and foreign and economic ministers of the 11-member grouping, with energy and food supply security top priorities for the region’s nearly 700 million people, the Reuters news agency reports.

    The energy crisis will test the Philippines’ chairmanship of ASEAN, according to analysts, forcing it ⁠to coordinate a regional response while preventing the region’s own conflicts, including Myanmar’s civil war and the still unresolved border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, from slipping down the agenda.

    “Planning to cushion the economic fallout could eventually outweigh other immediate regional issues,” Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and lecturer at Manila’s De La Salle University, told Reuters.

Beijing reportedly advises banks to pause loans to US-sanctioned oil refineries over Iran ties

    China’s financial regulator has advised the country’s largest lenders to temporarily suspend new loans to five oil refineries recently sanctioned by the US over their alleged ties to Iranian oil, Bloomberg News reports, citing “people familiar with the matter”.

    Al Jazeera could not independently verify the report.