Middle East crisis live: oil prices hit two-week low amid optimism that US and Iran are close to peace deal

In case you missed this earlier, Donald Trump has had to defend himself against criticism from fellow Republicans over the potential Iran deal after news of it dismayed party hawks.

As they called it a disaster and questioned why the US president launched the conflict in the first place, Trump claimed on social media that his nuclear deal with Tehran would be “the exact opposite” of the one agreed by Barack Obama, which Trump pulled out of in 2018.

As Patrick Wintour reports, Trump added that he was not rushing into a deal, saying “both sides must take their time to get it right … There can be no mistakes!”

The president also insisted “the US blockade of Iran’s ports will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed”.

“Nobody has seen” the deal “or knows what it is”, the US president later added. “It isn’t even fully negotiated yet. So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about.”

Facing the mounting criticism from inside his own party, Trump insisted: “I don’t make bad deals!”

Australian members of a flotilla that tried to deliver aid to Gaza have been welcomed home in emotional airport scenes after being freed from detention in Israel.

Eleven Australians were among 400 people detained by Israel last week in international waters west of Cyprus.

The broader group of flotilla participants allege they suffered abuse at the hands of Israeli forces, such as broken limbs, sexual assaults, tasers to the face and being injected with unknown substances.

Seven of the Australian contingent arrived in Sydney on Monday morning, while the rest were due to arrive in Melbourne and Brisbane, reports Australian Associated Press.

Walking out into a Sydney airport hall, the flotilla participants returned triumphant with fists and peace signs held high.

A large contingent of supporters – including family, friends and federal senators – greeted them on arrival with rapturous applause and chants of “free, free Palestine”.

The Israeli ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, has claimed the detained flotilla members were handled with “great sensitivity”. He rejected claims of violence and sexual abuse.

As well as oil prices falling, US stock futures rose on Monday at the prospect of a deal to end the Iran war, although uncertainty over when the strait of Hormuz would open kept enthusiasm in check.

Nasdaq futures were 0.89% higher and S+P futures were up 0.6%.

Nick Twidale, the chief market analyst at ATFX Global, expected the market to embrace more risk on Monday but not to surge higher until there was confirmation the Hormuz strait would reopen.

He said:

We will need to see an agreement out in place in the coming sessions as we know there are still some major sticking points.”

Reuters also reports that Japan’s Nikkei was poised for a strong start to Monday’s session. The most important issues for financial markets are when the Hormuz strait would reopen, Commonwealth Bank of Australia strategists said in a note.

Oil prices hit two-week lows on Monday on optimism that the US and Iran were moving closer towards a peace deal even though they remained at odds over key issues, including blockades on the strait of Hormuz that continue to restrict oil supply from the Middle East.

Brent crude futures fell $4.71, or 4.55%, to $98.83 a barrel by 2234 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate was at $92.03 a barrel, down $4.57, or 4.73%.

Both contracts touched their lowest points since 7 May earlier in the session, Reuters is reporting.

Iran has indicated its reported understanding with the US to halt the regional war would include Lebanon, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Donald Trump had reaffirmed his support for Israel’s right “to defend itself against threats on all fronts, including in Lebanon”.

Israel’s military chief, Lieut Gen Eyal Zamir, said that “we continue to strike Hezbollah across all dimensions … the security of civilians and the safety of our forces remain paramount”, a statement cited by AFP said.

The nominal ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon – brokered by the US – was recently extended by 45 days.

Israeli strikes pounded south and east Lebanon on Sunday despite a ceasefire as Hezbollah’s chief expressed hope for an agreement between Iran and the US to end the Middle East war that includes Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two people including a paramedic from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were killed on Sunday in Israeli raids.

The ministry raised the overall toll in the war since 2 March to 3,123 killed, AFP is reporting.

A day earlier 11 people including six women and a child were killed in a single strike in the south’s Sir al-Gharbiyeh, the ministry said on Sunday, decrying a “massacre”.

Israel’s military has continued to hit what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon despite a nominal ceasefire since 17 April.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah, meanwhile, claimed more than 20 attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon on Sunday.

As reported earlier, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said he hoped the agreement between Iran and the US would be finalised and “accordingly that we too will be among those included in this agreement” on a full cessation of hostilities.

As we move into Monday morning in Tehran, the world is still awaiting further details about the evolving US-Iran deal. But the longer we wait, the more likely it seems there are still differences between the two countries.

Here’s what we know so far:

• The US and Iran deal is not expected to be finalized today, according to multiple sources, with more still needing to be ironed out. US secretary of state Marco Rubio told the New York Times an agreement with Iran had garnered regional support but a nuclear deal couldn’t be achieved “in 72 hours on the back of a napkin”. His comments came after Donald Trump told his negotiators “not to rush into a deal” with Iran to end the three-month war.

• Trump confirmed on Sunday that talks are still ongoing. “It isn’t even fully negotiated yet. So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about,” he posted on Truth Social. “Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don’t make bad deals!”

• Similarly, Trump spoke on the phone with various Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday. During the call, he encouraged the leaders to sign on to the Abraham Accords, according to Axios, and establish diplomatic relations with Israel. The Arab and Muslim leaders were surprised by the US president’s request and stayed silent on the call, prompting Trump to jokingly ask if the leaders were still there. Currently, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Qatar do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

• Reports suggest that Israel is pressuring the US government to take some hardline stances while it continues to negotiate with Iran. Drop Site News reported that a senior Iranian official said Israel is attempting to undermine parts of the deal. “We hope that the US administration will make its decision independently of external influence and in favor of the broader collective interests of all parties involved,” the official reportedly said.

• Despite posturing by the US over the weekend, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said the US government is not budging on some clauses of the agreement, including with the issue of releasing frozen Iranian assets. An Al Jazeera English reporter said today the ceasefire in Lebanon has also become a sticking point, with Israel pushing the US to include language in the deal that would allow for further Israeli military operations in Lebanon.

• Rubio scolded a BBC reporter during an event in India this Sunday. The reporter asked Rubio about a deadly strike on a school in Iran that killed 120 schoolgirls on the first day of the war on Iran, pressing the secretary of state whether it was “reckless”.

The liberation of frozen assets belonging to Iran have become an important part of the US-Iran negotiations, with Iran pushing for an unfreezing of assets worldwide.

But why are countries around the world temporarily holding onto Iran’s assets?

Since 1979, sanctions on Iran have crippled its economy. Throughout the years, the justification for US-imposed sanctions has shifted. At first, the US sanctioned Iran due to the 1979 hostage crisis. But in recent years following, sanctions have been amplified over the country’s nuclear program.

The sanctions placed on Iran have prevented the country from accessing its assets, like money from oil sales, frozen by various countries.

Multiple different countries are holding Iran’s frozen assets, including Japan, Iraq, China, India and the US. Experts estimate the frozen Iranian assets are worth around $100bn.

When the US-Israel war on Iran began, Iran pushed for assets to be released before any negotiations could begin.

Now, the unfreezing of those assets seem to be key parts of the negotiations between the US and Iran. Various reports claim that the unfreezing of assets has become a sticking point in the negotiations.

Donald Trump encouraged Arab leaders to sign on to the Abraham Accords on Saturday during a conversation about the Iran deal, Axios reports.

The Arab and Muslim leaders were surprised by the US president’s request and stayed silent on the call, prompting Trump to jokingly ask if the leaders were still there.

The Abraham Accords, brokered by the first Trump administration, sought to normalize relations between Israel and some Arab and Muslim nations.

During Saturday’s call with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, Trump told them that if a deal to end the US-Israel war in Iran was achieved, he would like for the nations to sign onto the accords.

Currently, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Qatar do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

The Trump-brokered accords between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, “proved to be dangerously counterproductive, with Israeli-Gulf military cooperation leading to more risky and provocative behavior”, according to a recent Foreign Policy magazine piece written by Matt Duss, an analyst with the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Bernie Sanders.

“Far from promoting peace and stability, the Abraham Accords laid the groundwork for a new era of violence, providing political cover for genocide in Gaza and enabling a reckless war against Iran,” Duss added.

At a news conference in India on Sunday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, scolded a BBC reporter for asking if the deadly strike on a school in Minab, Iran on the first day of the US-Israeli attack, and strikes on another 21 schools in the following weeks, was “reckless”.

Tom Bateman, the BBC state department correspondent, who asked Rubio about the strike, which visual analysis by news organizations has suggested was carried out by the US but the Pentagon says it is still investigating, first asked the secretary of state to reveal what the Trump administration knew about the strike on 2 March.

On Sunday, the reporter pointed out to Rubio that, while “there’s a lot of attention at the moment on how to end this war … there is continued scrutiny on the way it began.” He reminded the top US diplomat, who is also Donald Trump’s national security adviser, that the first wave of strikes was launched by the US and Israel on “a Saturday in Iran in the morning when millions of children were at school.”

“There is media analysis that 22 schools at least were damaged either that day or in the following weeks,” the reporter added. “What do you say to those who will accuse the administration of unleashing a reckless action because of when this war was begun?

Rubio avoided responding directly to the question, but instead attacked the questioner for not framing the US bombing campaign as a response to what he called terrorism linked to Iran’s government.

“I’m not going to speak to military tactics simply because that’s not my department,” Rubio said. “I will say this to you: when we when this conflict began with Iran, the goals were outlined and they were very simple. They were very clear. We were going to destroy their navy, which we’ve done. We were going to significantly reduce their ability … to launch ballistic missiles because that was the conventional shield they were trying to hide behind. And we’ve achieved that objective. And we were going to do damage to the defense industrial base so they couldn’t rebuild all of these things. We’ve achieved that as well.”

“Those were the targets of our operation and that’s what they were targeted on,” the secretary of state said. “On the other hand, Iran likes to sponsor proxy groups of terrorists and these terrorists don’t care what they blow up. They blow up anything and everyone.”

“This is an Iran that not long ago through their Hezbollah proxies blew up a Jewish center in Argentina and killed a bunch of people,” Rubio went on, apparently referring to a terrorist attack in Buenos Aires that took place 32 years ago, in 1994.

He went on to describe the use of roadside bombs to kill or maim US troops in Iraq as terrorism, although attacks on soldiers do not meet the definition of terrorism used by most experts.

“There is no nation on earth that sponsors more terrorism than Iran,” he added. “They’ve spent not they’ve spent millions and millions of dollars sponsoring terrorism and targeting individuals all over the world and including civilians.”

“That’s what you should be asking me about,” Rubio told Bateman. “That’s what the BBC should be covering. And that’s what these other media outlets should be covering is how evil these people are in Iran and the damage they’ve done to people all over the world.”

Foreign ministers from eight Arab-Islamic nations have condemned the actions of Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli security minister, after he posted a video of detained Gaza flotilla activists.

The video showed the activists, who intended to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, kneeling with their hands bound.

The eight nations – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan – said in a statement: “Ben-Gvir’s deliberate public humiliation of detainees is a disgraceful assault on human dignity and a clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, and international human rights law.”

US secretary of state Marco Rubio told The New York Times an agreement with Iran had garnered regional support but a nuclear deal couldn’t be achieved “in 72 hours on the back of a napkin”.

His comments came after Donald Trump told his negotiators “not to rush into a deal” with Iran to end the three-month war.

Rubio said on Sunday: “We’re not kicking it till later. Nuclear talks are highly technical matters. You can’t do a nuclear thing in 72 hours on the back of a napkin.

“So right now, we have seven or eight countries in the region that are endorsing this approach, and we’re prepared to move forward on this approach.”

Donald Trump has given an update of sorts about the ceasefire negotiations with Iran and the apparent lack of detail, adding that talks are still ongoing.

The US president wrote on Truth Social: “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of CASH, and a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon.

“Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet. So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about.

“Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don’t make bad deals!”

Trouble may be brewing for the US-Iran deal as parties work to finalize an agreement. According to Al Jazeera English correspondent Ali Hashem, the US may be attempting to retreat on two key negotiating items: unfreezing Iranian assets and the extent of a ceasefire in Lebanon.

According to Hashem’s Iranian source, Israel seems to be pressuring the US to include language that would allow for further Israeli military operations in Lebanon. Iran is insistent on the ceasefire extending to Lebanon, as well.

“Tehran has informed all mediators, including Pakistan, that it will not sign the memorandum unless all clauses are fully agreed and guaranteed,” Hashem reports. “The overall picture suggests Tehran increasingly views Washington as backing away from earlier understandings reached through mediators.”

Naim Qassem, the chief of Hezbollah, said on Sunday he hoped the Iran agreement would be completed soon and include Hezbollah in the terms.

“God willing, this agreement will be finalized and there are signs of its completion, and accordingly that we too will be among those included in this agreement – an agreement of a full cessation of hostilities,” he said in a televised address, according to AFP.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said on Sunday that Donald Trump said he supported Israel’s fight against Hezbollah.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said that the US government is still obstructing some clauses of the agreement to end the war, including the issue of releasing blocked Iranian assets, according to Reuters. Some details of the deal are still unknown and nothing has been officially signed yet.

Axios and CBS report that the agreement with Iran is not expected to be signed today, with an anonymous senior Trump official telling Axios there are a number of details that still need to be finalized.

The senior official also said that the Iranian government at the moment moves slowly and that it may take several days for the agreement to go through all the approvals.

The chief of the Lebanese Hezbollah group said their disarmament is unacceptable, amounting to “annihilation”, according to the AFP news service.