As a ceasefire to the war with Iran entered its 24th day, Tehran responded via Pakistani mediators to a U.S. peace proposal, according to reports published Friday.
Axios wrote that Iran’s foreign ministry had presented its terms but did not specify what they are. Last weekend, Iran gave a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz but to table the issue of Iran’s nuclear energy program. This week the White House sent a list of amendments to that proposal, reinserting the nuclear issue. Iran’s Friday response to those amendments indicates that negotiations are not completely frozen, though diplomatic progress appears elusive.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported Friday that Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held phone calls with the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the Republic of Azerbaijan to discuss “Tehran’s latest positions and diplomatic initiatives aimed at ending the war.”
Iran has said that it will not renew direct talks until the U.S. ends its naval blockade. In a post on X Thursday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian called the blockade “intolerable.” Iran also has also insisted that implementing the ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel has waged a deadly military campaign, is a precondition for new talks, Drop Site News reports.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran “wants[s] to make a deal badly” and that the obstacle to making a deal is that “nobody knows for sure who the leaders are.”
Oil prices fell on Friday but remain much higher than before the war began, with the price of Brent crude oil recorded at $113.90 per barrel. Gas prices continued to rise, with AAA reporting the national average price of gas on Friday at $4.39.
The Financial Times reported on Friday that, despite requests from Trump, ExxonMobil and Chevron will not increase their oil production.
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Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least six people on Friday, and 32 people on Thursday. The IDF said that two Israeli soldiers were injured in a Hezbollah drone attack on Friday.
The director general of the World Health Organization said on X that the organization has recorded 149 attacks by the Israeli military on health care facilities and workers in Lebanon since February 28. The WHO reported that there have been six attacks on healthcare facilities in Israel over that same period.
Haaretz reported Friday, citing soldier testimonies and internal military messages, that Israeli soldiers are engaging in “extensive looting of property” in southern Lebanon, with senior commanders aware of the practice but taking no action to stop it.
