IDF map shows its advance into southern Lebanon – as it happened

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Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei says the US blockade of Iran’s ports and coastline is an act of aggression that violates the shaky ceasefire.

By “deliberately inflicting collective punishment on the Iranian population, it amounts to war crime and crimes against humanity,” Baghaei posted on social media.

Baghaei’s comments on Sunday came after Iran’s renewed threats on shipping, in response to the US blockade, fully reclosed the strategic strait of Hormuz.

Now in its eighth week, the Iran war has killed more than 5,000 people across several countries.

At least 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, the Associated Press has reported. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have also been killed.

We have some more news on the peace talks, and whether or not Iran will attend negotiations in Pakistan.

State broadcaster IRIB on Sunday cited Iranian sources as saying “there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks”.

The Fars and Tasnim news agencies had earlier cited anonymous sources as saying “the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive”, adding that lifting the US blockade was a precondition for negotiations.

President Donald Trump ordered US negotiators to travel to Pakistan on Monday, just days before a ceasefire in the Middle East expires.

The ongoing US blockade of Iranian ports has been a significant sticking point, an issue further complicated by a US destroyer on Sunday firing on and seizing an Iranian ship that tried to evade it. Tehran warned it would retaliate.

State-run IRNA meanwhile pointed to the blockade and Washington’s “unreasonable and unrealistic demands”, saying that “in these circumstances, there is no clear prospect of fruitful negotiations”.

JD Vance has responded to Pope Leo’s earlier comments where he said it was “not in my interest at all” to debate Donald Trump about the Iran war, and that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace.

Writing on X, Vance said:

“I am grateful to Pope Leo for saying this. While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict–and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen–the reality is often much more complicated.”

Vance is a very recent adult convert to Catholicism.

“Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day,” he added. “The President–and the entire administration–work to apply those moral principles in a messy world.”

Vance’s comments in support of the pope preaching the Gospel seem to contradict his earlier remarks at an event for the conservative group Turning Point USA on 14 April.

“When the pope says that God is never on the side of people who wield the sword, there is more than a 1,000-year tradition of just-war theory,” Vance said at the time. “I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology. If you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful.”

The US nearly turned into a net crude exporter last week for the first time since the second world war as shipments surged close to a record high to meet demand from Asian and European buyers scrambling to replace Middle East supplies cut by the Iran war.

The US and Israel’s war with Iran has triggered the largest ever disruption to the global energy market.

The Israeli military has published for the first time a map of its new deployment line inside Lebanon, bringing dozens of mostly abandoned Lebanese villages under its control, days after a ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect.

There was no immediate comment from Lebanese officials or from Iran-backed Hezbollah. Israel and Lebanon agreed on Thursday to a US-backed ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Thousands of Lebanese have rushed back to their villages in south Lebanon after the shaky 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect.

They returned despite the rubble-strewn roads and collapsed bridges, crossing dirt roads and even driving through the Litani River. Abbas Abdelkarim and William Christou have documented what those returnees found.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed the authenticity of a photo circulated on Sunday showing a soldier in southern Lebanon smashing a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer. The IDF said it will take action against those involved.

Following an initial review of the photo, the military says that “it was determined that the photograph depicts an IDF soldier operating in southern Lebanon”.

“The IDF views the incident with great severity and emphasizes that the soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops,” the military said. “Appropriate measures will be taken against those involved in accordance with the findings.”

The statement also added that the IDF is working to assist the community in restoring the statue.

More than 20 vessels passed the strait of Hormuz on Saturday, data from shipping analytics firm Kpler showed, the highest number of ships crossing the waterway since 1 March.

Among the vessels that made it through on Saturday, five of them last loaded cargoes from Iran ranging from oil products to metals. Three of them are liquefied petroleum gas carriers with one each heading to China and India.

With the US-Iran standoff over the strait sharpening, it is not clear where President Donald Trump’s earlier announcement on new talks with Iran now stands.

Trump has said US negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday. The ceasefire is scheduled to expire by Wednesday.

There was no comment from Iranian officials directly addressing Trump’s announcement of talks. However, Iranian state media, without citing anyone beyond unnamed sources, issued brief reports suggesting that the talks would not happen.

Minutes after the ship seizure was announced, Iranian state media reported on President Masoud Pezeshkian’s phone conversation with the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, earlier Sunday. US actions including bullying and unreasonable behaviour have led to increased suspicion that the US will repeat previous patterns and “betray diplomacy”, the reports cited Pezeshkian as saying.

Iran’s state broadcaster said the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told his Pakistani counterpart on another call that recent US actions, rhetoric and contradictions were signs of “bad intentions and lack of seriousness in diplomacy”.

Pakistan did not confirm a second round of talks, but authorities had begun tightening security in Islamabad.

Oil prices jumped, the US dollar rose and stock futures fell on Monday as investors dealt with conflicting messages about the Iran war and news that the strait of Hormuz was closed again.

In early Asian trading Brent crude futures jumped about 7% to $96.85 a barrel and S+P 500 futures fell about 0.9%.

The euro was down 0.3% at $1.1735 and the yen eased around 0.2% to 158.95 per dollar.

We’re starting to get some pictures of the incident involving the destroyer USS Spruance and the Iranian-flagged cargo vessel.

Iran’s top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya, has accused the US of violating a ceasefire by firing at an Iranian commercial ships in the Gulf of Oman, and he has vowed Iran will retaliate.

State media quoted a Khatam al-Anbiya spokesperson as saying early on Monday that the vessel was en route from China to Iran.

We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military.”

• Iran has reportedly rejected participation in a second round of peace talks with the US in Pakistan, citing “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”, according to the official IRNA news agency.

• Within the course of an hour, the Trump administration reversed course three times on whether JD Vance would be heading to Islamabad for the next round of Iran peace talks.

• Donald Trump said in a post on Sunday that the US marines have taken custody of a vessel that tried to get past the American blockade on Iranian ports, adding that US forces stopped the ship by blowing a hole in its engine room.

• The US military confirmed that the US destroyer fired “several rounds” towards an Iranian-flagged ship that was attempting to pass through its naval blockade. In a statement released on Sunday, US Central Command (Centcom) said the USS Spruance intercepted the Iranian-flagged Touska ship as it traveled towards an Iranian port “in violation of the US blockade.”

• The US blockade of Iran’s ports is a violation of the ceasefire agreement and is “both unlawful and criminal”, Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said Sunday.

• Metropolitan police in London are investigating whether a series of arson attacks against Jewish sites were carried out by Iranian proxies.

Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati commentator, said in a statement it’s time for the UAE to consider closing US bases, referring to them as a “burden.”

“The UAE no longer needs America to defend it, as it has proven during the Iranian aggression that it is capable of defending itself with distinction,” he wrote. “What the UAE needs is to acquire only the best and latest weapons that America has. Therefore, it is time to think about closing the American bases, as they are a burden and not a strategic asset.”

The US military has confirmed a US destroyer fired “several rounds” towards an Iranian-flagged ship that was attempting to pass through its naval blockade.

In a statement released on Sunday, US Central Command (Centcom) said the USS Spruance intercepted the Iranian-flagged Touska ship as it traveled towards an Iranian port “in violation of the US blockade.”

“After Touska’s crew failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period, Spruance directed the vessel to evacuate its engine room,” the statement said. “Spruance disabled Touska’s propulsion by firing several rounds from the destroyer’s 5-inch MK 45 Gun into Touska’s engine room. US Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit later boarded the non-compliant vessel, which remains in US custody”.

Touska, the Iranian-flagged vessel that Trump said US marines have taken custody of, is currently listed on the US Treasury Department’s sanctions list.

According to the website TankerTrackers, “Iran-linked tankers that haven’t yet been placed under US sanctions continue to move freely in and out of the region. US Treasury’s OFAC has slapped sanctions on 397 Iran-linked tankers but there are another 236 we know about which OFAC haven’t yet addressed.”