Lebanon, Israel to hold direct talks as Trump blockades Iran

Lebanese and Israeli representatives were set to meet Tuesday in Washington for their first direct talks in decades, but Hezbollah's opposition to the US-mediated negotiations signalled little prospect of an agreement to stop fighting.

The United States is pressing for a halt to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, fearing that it could derail a two-week ceasefire, despite talks with Tehran in Pakistan failing to achieve a breakthrough.

Washington said "the ball is in the Iranian court" on ending the region-wide war, after a US naval blockade on Iranian ports began in the Strait of Hormuz, which has already been effectively closed by Tehran.

Lebanon was pulled into the broader conflict after Hezbollah attacked Israel, sparking an Israeli ground invasion and strikes -- including an extremely heavy attack on Beirut on April 8 -- that have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced over one million.

The Washington meeting -- the first such talks since 1993 -- will be mediated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and include the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States.

But expectations of any major advances were low, with Hezbollah's leader Naim Qassem calling for the talks to be scrapped before they even began, describing them as "futile".

Israel's government ruled out discussing any ceasefire with Hezbollah, insisting instead on the disarmament of the group which it accuses of keeping up rocket fire against civilians in the north of the country.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has said he hopes a truce deal can be agreed and full-blown negotiations launched between the two countries, which have technically been at war for decades.

On the ground, war-weary residents of Beirut said they hoped the talks would pave the way for an end to the violence that has upended their lives.

"We are extremely tired," said Kamal Ayad, 49. "We have lived through many wars and we want rest."

- US blockades Iran -

While attention switched to the meeting on the war between Hezbollah and Israel, Trump sought to squeeze Iran with a naval blockade as diplomatic efforts accelerated towards a new round of peace talks with Tehran.

US Central Command said the move included "vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman".

Iran's military command branded the blockade an act of piracy, and warned that if the security of its harbours "is threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea will be safe".

With his blockade of Iranian ports, Trump was trying to starve Iran of funds but also pressure Beijing, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, to lean on Tehran to reopen Hormuz, analysts said.

China said the blockade around Iranian ports was "dangerous and irresponsible", after Trump threatened to sink any boats that sought to leave or dock there.

The standoff at the strait, through which one-fifth of global oil transits, failed to dampen optimism on global markets, with Asian equities rallying while oil continued a downward slide.

Crucially, the fragile two-week truce agreed last Wednesday remained in place.

Trump insisted that Iranian representatives had called Washington since a US delegation returned empty-handed from negotiations in Islamabad.

"I can tell you that we've been called by the other side. They'd like to make a deal. Very badly, very badly," he told reporters outside the Oval Office.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday that "full efforts are underway" to reach an agreement to stop the fighting and that US-Iran ceasefire was "holding".

On Tuesday, senior Pakistani sources told AFP Islamabad was working to bring Iran and the United States together for a second round of talks.

Iranian state TV reported Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran "will continue to talk only within the framework of international law" in a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

- Nuclear enrichment pause? -

Trump has insisted that an agreement must include stopping Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon, having launched the war after accusing Tehran of developing an atomic bomb -- an allegation it denies.

During weekend talks, the United States reportedly sought a 20-year suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment programme, according to media reports on Monday.

Iran in turn proposed to suspend its nuclear activity for five years, which US officials rejected, The New York Times reported.

Diplomatic efforts were also picking up elsewhere, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov landing in Beijing on Tuesday, hours after Iran's state news agency reported that he had spoken with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Abbas Araghchi.

Moscow has offered to hold Iran's enriched uranium safely as part of any deal.

Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed Tuesday that Beijing would play a "constructive role" in promoting peace talks in the Middle East as he urged respect for sovereignty of nations in the war-torn region, state media reported.

bur-del/srm