Meeting announced in Qatar
Iran and the United States announced meetings this week in Qatar on Monday after their attacks in recent days, but Tehran speaks of technical meetings without direct negotiations with the opposing camp when Washington speaks of “high-level meetings”.
According to CNN, which cites two American officials, the United States envoy Steve Witkoff is already on his way to Doha. A diplomat familiar with the talks confirmed a meeting “in the coming days of technical teams”, adding that “communication channels to defuse incidents were operational”.
After initially denying any meeting, Iranian diplomacy confirmed on Monday the sending of a “delegation of experts” this week to Doha. But “in the coming days, we will not negotiate with the American side, at any level,” insisted the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ismaïl Baghaï.
Tensions around Hormuz
Tensions are crystallizing around the management of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where traffic slowed this weekend after two ship attacks. A total of 29 boats carrying raw materials crossed the strait on Saturday and 12 on Sunday, according to data from maritime tracking company Kpler, a figure down sharply compared to previous days.
Iran has been repeating for weeks despite opposition from the United States that there will be no return to the pre-war situation, when passage was free. And he threatened ships attempting to circumvent the authorized route.
Iran and Oman claim sovereignty over transit through the strait and are therefore considering service fees. However, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, not ratified by Tehran, guarantees “unhindered” freedom of navigation for ships in straits used for international navigation.
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon
Lebanese state media reported that an Israeli strike took place in southern Lebanon on Monday, despite the framework agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel on Friday to achieve “lasting peace.”
“Israeli warplanes carried out an air raid targeting the area between the localities of Qantara and Deir Seryan,” reported the official Lebanese News Agency ANI, without further details.
Emirates lifts travel ban to Lebanon
The United Arab Emirates announced that its nationals could again travel to Lebanon from Monday, lifting a ban put in place due to the war in the Middle East.
Reported by the official WAM agency, this green light given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is accompanied, for Emiratis who would like to travel to Lebanon, with compulsory registration on the platform of their country’s consular services.
In April, the Emirates banned its nationals from going to Lebanon, as well as Iraq and Iran, in the midst of war in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic had carried out strikes against the petromonarchy, an ally of the United States, in retaliation for the Israeli-American attack against it launched on February 28.
