EU, Arab states pressure Israel to stop strikes - source

European and Arab states have pressured Israel to stop targeting Beirut, a Western diplomat said, two days after deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon that left more than 300 people dead.

Yesterday afternoon, the Israeli military issued a warning of incoming strikes for large, densely populated areas of southern Beirut, but had not carried out the threat as of midday today.

The Western diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss sensitive matters, said: "There is ongoing diplomatic pressure from European states, Gulf states and Egypt on Israel to prevent renewed Israeli airstrikes on Beirut after 'Black Wednesday.'"
More than 300 people, mostly civilians according to a Lebanese military source, were killed in the wave of simultaneous Israeli strikes on Wednesday on Beirut and other areas of Lebanon.

The strikes were launched despite the announcement hours earlier of a truce between the United States and Iran, with Israel and the US saying it did not apply to Lebanon.

Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny said, in a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency (NNA) yesterday, that he had "received assurances" from foreign diplomats that the airport and the road leading to it would be spared.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Zaatari, director of the country's largest public medical facility, Rafic Hariri Hospital, told AFP: "We have received assurances, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross, that the hospital would not be targeted."
The World Health Organization yesterday called on Israel to cancel its evacuation warning for the Jnah district of Beirut because around 450 patients were in the Rafic Hariri and Al-Zahraa hospitals in the district, including 40 in intensive care.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli strikes hit several villages during the night and today, the NNA reported.

An AFP photographer saw firefighters extinguishing a fire in a building blown apart by a nighttime strike in the village of Habbouch, near Nabatiyeh.

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed several rocket launches on northern Israel, as well as attacks on Israeli troops advancing in the border area.

Strait still shut and Lebanon fighting strains truce
The Strait of Hormuz remained shut today, and Israel traded fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the United States and Iran each described as violations of their ceasefire deal on the eve of their first peace talks of the war.

The two-day-old ceasefire has halted the campaign of US and Israeli air strikes on Iran.

But ⁠it has so far done nothing to end the blockade of the strait, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or to calm a parallel war waged by Israel against Iran's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

Iran was doing a "very poor job" of allowing oil to go through the strait, US President Donald Trump said in a social media post overnight.

"That is not the agreement we have!"
In a separate post, he said oil would start flowing again, without saying how.

Pakistani capital locked down for talks
Iran, for its part, described the ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon as a violation of the truce.

Iran says the truce was meant to apply to Lebanon, a position initially supported by Pakistan, which mediated it.

Israel and the United States say Lebanon is not covered by the US-Iranian ceasefire.

But in a shift yesterday, Israel said it would open separate talks with the Lebanese government aimed at ending the war there and disarming Hezbollah.

The rival accusations of violations appeared unlikely to derail the first planned US-Iranian peace talks, set to begin in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, from tomorrow.

The centre of Islamabad was placed under complete lockdown for a hastily announced public holiday, with a security perimeter thrown up for ‌a 3km"red zone" around a luxury hotel where all guests were ordered out ⁠to make room for both delegations.

Pakistani officials were tight-lipped about the exact timing of the arrival of the Iranian delegation to be led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

A source involved in the talks said the Pakistani air force would escort the Iranians' plane.

The US delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance, is due in time for the start of the talks tomorrow.

US inflation data to show war's early impact
The ceasefire has brought an expectation that Middle East oil will resume flowing, and curbed benchmark oil prices based on delivery a month in the future.

But the prices for present-day spot delivery have yet to fall, and some refineries in Europe and Asia are paying record prices close to $150 (€128) a barrel.

March US consumer price figures are due today, the first official American statistics to show the war's early impact ‌on inflation.

In the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, just a single oil products tanker and five dry bulk carriers sailed through the strait, which typically carries 140 ships a day.

Although Mr Trump has declared victory, the war did not achieve the aims he set out at the start: to deprive Iran of the ability to strike its neighbours, dismantle its nuclear programme ⁠and make it easier for its people to overthrow their government.

Iran still possesses missiles and drones capable of hitting its neighbours and a stockpile of more than 400kg of uranium enriched near the level needed to make a bomb.

Its clerical rulers, who faced a popular uprising just months ago, withstood the onslaught with no sign of organised opposition.

Iran's agenda at the talks now includes demands for major new ⁠concessions, including the end of ‌sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgement of its authority over the strait, where it aims to collect transit fees and control access in what would amount to a huge shift in regional power.

It's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, yet to be seen in public since taking over from his father, who was killed on the war's first day, released a defiant statement yesterday saying Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage.

"We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked our country," he said.

The United States, for its part, wants Iran to relinquish the uranium, ⁠forgo further enrichment, give up its missiles and end support for regional allies - years-old demands left over from talks Mr Trump abandoned two days before launching the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement yesterday that he had given instructions to start ⁠peace talks with Lebanon as soon as possible marked a shift after he rebuffed Lebanese calls last month for direct talks.

"The negotiations will focus on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon," Mr Netanyahu said.

Israel invaded Lebanon last month in pursuit of Hezbollah after the group fired into Israel in support of Iran.

Israel's military said today it had struck ten launchers in Lebanon that fired rockets toward northern Israel yesterday evening, and that Iran-allied armed group Hezbollah had launched a missile at Israel, triggering air sirens.

Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli military infrastructure in the northern city of Haifa.

The armed group had initially indicated it would pause attacks in line with the ceasefire, but said it would resume fighting after Wednesday's Israeli strikes.

A senior Lebanese official told Reuters Lebanon had spent the day pushing for a temporary ceasefire to ‌allow for broader talks with Israel, describing the effort as a "separate track but the same model" as the US-Iran truce.

A US State Department official confirmed the US would host a meeting next week to "discuss ongoing ceasefire negotiations".

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