Comrades, relatives and friends of Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Ayal Uriel Bianco, who was reportedly killed in combat in southern Lebanon, attend his funeral in Katzrin in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Tuesday.
Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images
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Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. military said it had “completely halted” all commercial trade moving in and out of Iran’s ports, less than 36 hours after imposing a naval blockade.
The announcement comes after President Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to enforce a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following U.S.-Iran peace talks in Islamabad over the weekend that ended without any agreement.
But on Tuesday, Trump told the New York Post a second round of direct talks could resume in Islamabad within two days.
In a Wednesday morning interview with Fox Business, Trump said the war with Iran was “very close” to ending.
“I view it as very close to being over,” Trump told anchor Maria Bartiromo.
Trump has repeatedly suggested the war is nearing an end without offering a clear timeline.
The latest developments came as the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that the global economy could be heading toward a recession triggered by the war.
A girl plays with a bubble blower at an unofficial camp for displaced people in Beirut’s waterfront area on Tuesday.
Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images
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Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images
Here are more updates from the region:
U.S. blockade | Peace talks | Recession fears | Israel-Hezbollah fighting
U.S. military says it has blocked Iranian ports
A top U.S. military commander said U.S. forces have imposed a blockade of Iranian ports and have established “maritime superiority” in the Middle East.
“In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea,” Adm. Bradley Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, said in a statement shared online early Wednesday local time. He suggested the U.S. blockade brought to a halt Iran’s economy, which relies on international trade by sea.
The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports entered into force on Monday following face-to-face negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials in Islamabad to end the war. According to Trump, the meeting failed to achieve a breakthrough over Iran’s insistence to continue its nuclear program.
A ship is seen off the coast of Ras al-Khaimah, the day after the failure of US-Iran peace talks on Monday.
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The blockade is seen as a tactic to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where nearly 20% of the global supply of oil and gas normally moves. It’s also a key passageway for other goods such as fertilizer, aluminum and helium.
Iran closed the waterway in retaliation to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28. It has let a small fraction of ships through from countries it considers friendly or neutral in the conflict. An Iranian lawmaker told state media recently that Iran collects $2 million fees from some vessels passing through the strait. Trump called the move “extortion.”
The U.S. military said Tuesday 10,000 U.S. service members, more than 100 aircraft and over 12 warships were enforcing the blockade of vessels entering and leaving Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
So far, the U.S. military said no ships from Iranian ports got through the blockade and that six merchant vessels “complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around.”
Trump says peace talks in Pakistan could resume this week
In an interview with The New York Post on Tuesday, Trump said additional peace talks between the U.S. and Iran “could be happening over the next two days” in Islamabad.
Peace talks in Pakistan’s capital over the weekend ended after 21 hours without any agreement.
“You should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we’re more inclined to go there,” Trump said, referring to Islamabad.
He went on to praise Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, for doing a “great job” in mediating the talks.
“He’s fantastic, and therefore it’s more likely that we go back there,” Trump said.
Pakistan, which holds strong diplomatic relations with both the U.S. and Iran, has emerged as a key mediator in negotiations between the two countries.
Vice President Vance, Washington’s lead negotiator, said a major sticking point that led to the breakdown in Saturday’s talks was Iran’s refusal to commit to abandoning its nuclear ambitions.
“The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.
President Trump speaks to the press outside the Oval Office at the White House on Monday.
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
However, he left open the possibility an agreement could still be reached, saying: “We leave here with a very simple proposal: a method of understanding that is our final and best offer,” adding, “We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.”
Iran said the two sides had “reached an understanding on a number of issues, but ultimately the talks did not lead to an agreement.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a member of the Iranian negotiating team, accused the U.S. delegation of “maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade.”
Iran, under its 10-point negotiation plan, demanded an end to Israel’s attacks against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah as part of any permanent agreement. Other demands from the Iranian delegation included the release of $6 billion in frozen assets, guarantees around its nuclear program and the right to charge ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
IMF warns global economy at risk of recession
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Tuesday that the war with Iran could trigger a global recession that would hit the U.K. more than any other G7 country.
In its biannual update, the IMF cut its estimate for U.K. growth this year to 0.8%, down from the 1.3% prediction made in January.
The U.K. imports the majority of its oil and gas from abroad.
The Resolution Foundation, a British think tank, says U.K. households will already be about $500 (£480) worse off this year due to the war.
Britain’s finance minister, Rachel Reeves, issued a sharp critique of the U.S.-Iran war on Tuesday, which she called a “folly” with no clear exit plan.
“I feel very frustrated and angry that the U.S. went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they’re trying to achieve,” Reeves told the British newspaper The Mirror.
A man fixes the United Arab Emirates’ national flag to the roof of his house in Dubai on Tuesday, after a call by the Emirati leaders urging people across the country to hoist the flag as a symbol of unity and pride.
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Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, told the BBC that U.S. ally countries were going to suffer a “small bit of economic pain,” but said it would be worth it to eliminate the threat of Iranian nuclear strikes on Western capitals.
“I wonder what the hit to global GDP would be if a nuclear weapon hit London…I am saying that I am less concerned about short-term forecasts, for long-term security,” he said.
Across Europe and beyond, governments have begun implementing emergency fuel tax cuts in response to surging prices.
In Ireland, the government announced more than $589 million (€500 million) in tax cuts on motor fuel over the weekend following a week of protests over high fuel prices, which brought many parts of the country to a standstill.
In Germany, lawmakers unveiled a $1.9 billion (€1.6 billion) fuel price relief plan to help people with the rising costs.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday said he was suspending the country’s federal gas tax until early September.
Fighting between Hezbollah and Israel resumes after historic Israel-Lebanon talks
Hezbollah and Israel continued to exchange fire on Wednesday, a day after Israel and Lebanon met for direct talks in Washington, the first in more than 30 years, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops several times with rockets, artillery strikes and drones and it fired at communities in Israel’s north. Israel expanded its military occupation of southern Lebanon, where it said its forces engaged in fierce battle with Hezbollah fighters.
A relative of Hassan Ali Badawi, a paramedic with the Lebanese Red Cross who was killed the previous day in an Israeli airstrike, mourns as the family receives condolences at their home in the Bchamoun area south of Beirut, on Monday.
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The talks came after nearly seven weeks of fighting between the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon. Hezbollah, which is also a major political party that holds seats in the Lebanese parliament, does not support the talks and has called on the Lebanese government to cancel them.
More than 2,100 people have been killed by Israeli strikes, according to Lebanese health officials. Hezbollah has also fired at Israel, killing at least 12 soldiers and two civilians, according to Israeli authorities. Lebanese officials said Israel has demolished more than 40,000 homes in the south, seizing land for what Israel calls a “buffer zone” to keep Hezbollah from firing rockets into northern Israel.
The Lebanese government wants a ceasefire, but Israel said it would not agree to it until Hezbollah disarms, a longstanding Israeli demand, which the Lebanese government has been unable to enforce in the past.
Following the talks on Tuesday, Rubio said the talks were about “bringing a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah’s influence in this part of the world.”
Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Kat Lonsdorf in Beirut, Aya Batrawy in Dubai, Fatima Al-Kassab in London and Rebecca Rosman in Paris contributed to this report.
