Iran demands Lebanon ceasefire, unfreezing of assets before US peace talks
Iran has been unable to obtain tens of billions of dollars of its assets in foreign banks, mainly from exports of oil and gas, due to US sanctions on its banking and energy sectors.
Summary
- Iran says ceasefire must include Lebanon, unfreezing of assets
- Vance tells Iran not to 'play us'
- Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon continue on Friday
- Thirteen Lebanese service members killed
Iran said on Friday (10 April) that Iranian assets must be unblocked and a ceasefire take hold in Lebanon before peace talks with the United States can proceed, throwing last-minute doubt over negotiations scheduled for Saturday in Pakistan.
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that the two measures had been previously agreed with Washington and that talks would not start until they are fulfilled, amid mounting dispute over the ceasefire terms.
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This was echoed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also demanded an end to Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon. Both officials are expected to be at the talks, Pakistani sources said.
While there was no immediate comment from the White House, US President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the only reason the Iranians were alive was to negotiate a deal.
"The Iranians don't seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!," he said.
Trump, who did not specifically address the Iranian demands, earlier told the New York Post that US warships were being reloaded "with the best ammunition to resume strikes on Iran if peace talks in Pakistan fail".
Vice President JD Vance, who will lead the US delegation, said he expected a positive outcome as he headed to Pakistan, but added: "if they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive".
Iran has been unable to obtain tens of billions of dollars of its assets in foreign banks, mainly from exports of oil and gas, due to US sanctions on its banking and energy sectors.
Tenuous truce
Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the six-week war on Tuesday, just hours before a deadline after which he had threatened to destroy Iran's civilisation.
However, the truce is tenuous with Israel's continuing bombardment of Lebanon and the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz proving key sticking points for both sides.
The ceasefire has halted the campaign of US and Israeli airstrikes 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 letting oil through the strait, Trump said in a social media post. He also warned Tehran against trying to collect fees from ships crossing it. "That is not the agreement we have!"
Israel and the US have said the campaign against militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon is not part of the agreed ceasefire.
Israel launched the biggest attack of the war hours after the ceasefire was announced, killing more than 300 people in surprise strikes on heavily populated areas, Lebanese authorities said.
Israeli strikes continued across southern Lebanon on Friday, with more than a dozen people reported killed in various towns. One strike on a government building in the city of Nabatieh killed 13 members of Lebanon's state security forces, the country's President Joseph Aoun said in a statement.
Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it fired rocket salvos at northern Israeli towns in response.
Lebanese authorities say at least 1,830 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2.
Iranian hard line
The hard line taken by Iran's leaders ahead of the negotiations followed a defiant message from its new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday.
Khamenei, yet to be seen in public since taking over from his father who was killed on the war's first day, said Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage.
"We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked our country," he said.
Although 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 400 kg (900 pounds) 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.
Tehran's agenda at the talks now includes demands for major new concessions, including the end of sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgment 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.
Iran's ships were sailing through the strait unimpeded on Friday, while those of other countries remained hemmed inside.
Among the handful of vessels to cross on Friday was an Iranian supertanker capable of carrying 2 million barrels of crude. Before the war, 140 ships would cross in a typical day, including tankers carrying 20 million barrels.
Disruption to energy supplies has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.
US monthly inflation data released on Friday, the first to show the war's impact, showed consumer prices rose by 0.9% in March, the fastest rate since the mid-2022 inflation shock that eroded support for Trump's predecessor Joe Biden.
