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Returning to the Israeli military saying sirens warning of a hostile aircraft infiltration had sounded in northern Israel, it said later on Tuesday that the alert was determined to be a “false identification”.
The sirens had sounded in the area of Sasa, it said.
More on Rubio’s comments: he also anticipates progress over a potential US-Iran deal will “take a few days” amid discussions over the language in the agreement.
“There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress,” the US secretary of state was quoted as saying in India during an official visit.
I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document, so it’ll take a few days.
The president’s expressed his desire to make it. He’s either going to make a good deal or no deal.”
The comments came as leading Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for talks with the Qatari prime minister on the potential peace deal to end the Iran war, and amid fresh US strikes it called “self-defensive” on southern Iran.
As just mentioned, Rubio also told reporters in relation to the strait of Hormuz that “the straits have to be open” and “they’re going to be open one way or the other”.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said the strait of Hormuz has to be open “one way or the other”, in comments after new US strikes on Iran on Monday.
“The straits have to be open they’re going to be open one way or the other, so they need to be open,” Rubio was quoted as telling reporters on his plane in Jaipur, India, on Tuesday amid an official visit.
What’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable.”
Rubio said the negotiating language of the deal with Iran could “take a few days”.
The fresh US strikes on southern Iran came as Iran’s top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar’s prime minister over the potential deal to end the war, Reuters quoted an official as saying on Monday.
The visit came after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough.
The unnamed official, who the news agency said was briefed on the trip, said the discussions with the Iranians focused on the strait of Hormuz and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Iran’s central bank governor also attended to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final deal, the official said.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier that nuclear issues would be negotiated only after the framework accord was agreed.
While the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell, the fresh US strikes reportedly sent Brent futures rising more than 1% in early Asian trade to $97.32 a barrel.
Stock markets were mixed, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.8% and Japan’s Nikkei down 0.2%.
The price of the main US benchmark for oil fell more than 5% on Tuesday, despite the new US strikes on southern Iran.
Around 0030 GMT the price of West Texas Intermediate was down 5.46% at $91.33 a barrel.
But North Sea Brent crude was up 1.6% at $97.68 a barrel, AFP is reporting.
Oil prices plunged below $100 on Monday amid investor optimism for a reopening of the strait of Hormuz after signs the US and Iran were edging closer to a deal.
The Israeli military is saying sirens warning of a hostile aircraft infiltration have been sounded in the northern area of Sasa.
The details were under review, it added on Telegram.
Circling back to the Abraham Accords, Donald Trump said any deal to end the war with Iran should include a requirement for several additional countries including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to join the agreements aimed at normalising relations with Israel.
The US president pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should “immediately” sign on, alongside Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan.
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in 2020 became the first countries to join the accords, which the US brokered during Trump’s first tern.
He has long hoped Saudi Arabia would join, but the kingdom has maintained that any normalisation deal requires first establishing a clear path for Palestinian statehood, the Associated Press reports. That’s also key for Pakistan, which is among the countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, said it remained to be seen how workable the proposal might be for the countries on Trump’s list. Pointing to the domestic pressure Trump is facing to strike a favourable deal with Iran, Khan said:
The invocation of the Abraham Accords at this stage gives an altogether new dimension to the diplomatic and mediatory processes because this issue was not on the agenda.”
The intensifying fighting between Israel and Hezbollah comes amid waning hopes for an imminent deal between the US and Iran, with Tehran pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure.
As mentioned, the Israeli army has intensified strikes in southern Lebanon as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in an effort to “crush” Hezbollah in a further erosion of an already fragmented ceasefire.
In turn, Hezbollah said it attacked three barracks and a military post in northern Israel on Monday “in response to the violation of the ceasefire” by Israel.
After Netanyahu’s call for escalation, residents were seen fleeing the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.
The Israeli air force carried out successive strikes in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon on Monday evening, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Dozens of Israeli strikes earlier targeted several towns and villages in southern Lebanon, killing three people, it reported, and strikes then targeted towns near the ancient city of Tyre.
There’s more in our new full report:
Two Iranian boats had been spotted laying mines in the strait of Hormuz, and US forces also responded after a missile site targeted US warplanes, Fox News has quoted a senior US official as claiming.
The US military destroyed both Revolutionary Guard vessels and also struck a surface-to-air missile site in the southern city of Bandar Abbas, it reported.
“These were defensive strikes,” the official said. The strikes did not indicate the ceasefire with Iran was over, two additional sources told the network.
Explosions had been heard on Monday in regions across the strait of Hormuz, Fox said, including close to Sirik and Jask near the key waterway. The official later confirmed the US strikes were “over for now”.
The US military’s Central Command is saying US forces have carried out strikes on southern Iran in “self-defence”.
The strikes targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats seeking to lay mines, Centcom is quoted as saying.
It says the military will defend US forces “while using restraint” during the ongoing ceasefire.
Explosions were heard earlier in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas and the Iranian state news agency Mehr later said the situation was “completely under control” and there was no reason for residents to worry.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
