US-Iran war live updates: Peace talks in Pakistan collapse as Trump cancels envoy trip; Israel-Lebanon ceasefire shaky amid strikes

Good morning and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in the Middle East.

Here’s the news from yesterday and overnight that you might have missed:

• Ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran appear to have failed before they began, after Tehran’s top diplomat left Pakistan and US President Donald Trump told his envoys not to travel to Islamabad.
• The ceasefire between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah was shaken on Saturday as each side fired at the other and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “vigorously attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.”
• After leaving Tehran, Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Abbas Argchi, arrived in Oman where he’s expected to join meetings about regional developments. Oman was a mediator for indirect talks before the war.
• Iran’s joint military command warned in a statement Saturday that if the US continues its “naval blockades, banditry, and piracy in the region,” it will provoke a decisive military response from Iran.
• An Israeli drone strike near a school in northern Gaza City killed one Palestinian and wounded two others on Saturday, according to officials at Shifa hospital, where the casualties arrived.

The US is continuing to enforce a blockade on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, intercepting 37 ships since the sanctions began on April 13.

A post from the US Central Command said 19 “shadow fleet” ships had been intercepted – those are ships carrying oil and energy products from Iran to foreign markets against US sanctions.

NBC News reported at least two US-sanctioned ships had managed to pass through the strait despite the blockade, citing tracking data.

Trump says the US Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz. The vital sea route for Persian Gulf oil is closed to most ships, straining the global economy.

Experts say sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Any future claims that the US cleared the waterway where 20 per cent of the world’s oil typically passes might fail to convince commercial freighters and their insurers that it’s finally safe.

“There’s only so much the US can do to give that confidence back to commercial shipping,” said Emma Salisbury, a scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s National Security Program.

Seeking out mines is among the latest tactics announced by the Trump administration to get traffic moving again through the strait as rising energy prices and wider economic effects pose a political risk.

AP

Iranian state media reports the parents of schoolchildren killed in the bombing of a school in February have written to the Pope thanking him for calling for peace, and to urge him to continue to speak up for “voiceless” children.

Pope Leo XIV has been public in his calls for peace, and has clashed with Donald Trump – putting the president at odds with many American Catholics.

Iranian news agency IRNA reported a letter will be sent to the pontiff from the families of children killed in the strike on a school in southern Iran. The New York Times previously reported the February bombing was most likely a US military error as the school building was close to a military target, according to preliminary internal reports.

“We are the fathers and mothers of 168 children who, these days, instead of hugging the warm bodies of our children, are clutching their burnt bags and bloody notebooks to our chests; innocent children whose only crime was smiling in the classroom,” the letter said, according to IRNA.

“When the terrible sound of explosions closed the ears of the world to our cries, the echo of your (the Pope’s) peaceful words became a balm for our endless wounds.”

Amid the stalled negotiations with Iran, the US president said the Iranians sent over a new peace proposal, but that it “could have been better,” so he rejected it.

“They gave us a paper that could have been better, and interestingly, immediately when I cancelled it, within 10 minutes we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump said to reporters on Saturday before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from Florida.

The president wouldn’t offer specifics about what was in the latest proposal other than saying “they offered a lot.” But he stressed that one of his conditions was that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump said he cancelled the latest rounds of negotiations because going to Pakistan was “a lot of travelling” and because his negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, “weren’t meeting with the leader [of Iran].”

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says constructive talks were held with his Iranian counterparts, after top officials left Islamabad and Donald Trump cancelled his delegation’s trip completely.

“Had a warm and constructive telephone exchange this evening with my brother, President Masoud Pezeshkian, on the evolving regional situation. I appreciated Iran’s continued engagement, including the high-level delegation to Islamabad led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, whom I had the pleasure of meeting earlier today,” Sharif said on X.

“I reaffirmed that, with the support of friends and partners, Pakistan remains committed to serve as an honest and sincere facilitator – working tirelessly to advance durable peace and lasting stability in the region.”

The latest ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran have collapsed, as Tehran’s top diplomat left Pakistan and US President Donald Trump soon afterwards said he had told envoys not to travel to Islamabad.

Trump told reporters in Florida that he decided to call off the planned visit by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner because the talks in Islamabad involved too much travel and expense, and Iran’s latest peace offer was not good enough for him.

Before boarding Air Force One on Saturday for a return flight to Washington, Trump said Iran had improved an offer to resolve the conflict after he cancelled the visit, “but not enough.”

In announcing his decision earlier on Saturday, Trump said on social media: “If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” The White House had said on Friday that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would be going to Islamabad.

Good morning and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in the Middle East.

Here’s the news from yesterday and overnight that you might have missed:

• Ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran appear to have failed before they began, after Tehran’s top diplomat left Pakistan and US President Donald Trump told his envoys not to travel to Islamabad.
• The ceasefire between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah was shaken on Saturday as each side fired at the other and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “vigorously attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.”
• After leaving Tehran, Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Abbas Argchi, arrived in Oman where he’s expected to join meetings about regional developments. Oman was a mediator for indirect talks before the war.
• Iran’s joint military command warned in a statement Saturday that if the US continues its “naval blockades, banditry, and piracy in the region,” it will provoke a decisive military response from Iran.
• An Israeli drone strike near a school in northern Gaza City killed one Palestinian and wounded two others on Saturday, according to officials at Shifa hospital, where the casualties arrived.

Israel has declared it will attack Hezbollah targets forcefully, further testing a fragile ceasefire with Lebanon that US President Donald Trump recently said had been extended by three weeks.

Four people were killed on Saturday in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, while the Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired rockets at Israel, posing the latest challenges to the tenuous ceasefire.

The ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon has led to a significant reduction in hostilities, but Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have continued to clash in southern Lebanon, where Israel has kept soldiers in the self-declared buffer zone.

A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the military had been instructed to attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon forcefully, providing no further details.