By Parisa Hafezi and Maya Gebeily
DUBAI/BEIRUT, April 9 (Reuters) – Israel bombed more targets in Lebanon on Thursday, putting the Middle East ceasefire in further jeopardy after its biggest attacks of the war on its neighbour killed more than 250 people and threatened to torpedo Donald Trump’s truce from the outset.
Iranian negotiators were expected to set off later on Thursday for Pakistan for the first peace talks of the war, due to meet a U.S. delegation on Saturday.
But there was no sign Iran had lifted its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the worst disruption to global energy supplies in history. Tehran said there would be no deal as long as Israel was striking Lebanon.
The shortage drove the price that European and Asian refineries pay for oil to record levels near $150 a barrel, with even higher prices for some products such as jet fuel.
Israel, which invaded Lebanon last month in parallel with the war on Iran to root out the armed group Hezbollah, Tehran’s ally, says its actions there are not covered by the ceasefire announced late on Tuesday by Trump.
Washington has also said Lebanon is not covered by the truce, but Iran and Pakistan, which acted as mediator, say it was explicitly part of the deal. A host of countries, including Britain and France, said the truce should extend to Lebanon.
A Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussions said Pakistan was working on ceasefires for Lebanon and Yemen: “It will be discussed during the (upcoming) talks and we will settle it.”
ISRAEL SAYS IT KILLS HEZBOLLAH CHIEF’S NEPHEW
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had killed the nephew of Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem, who had served as his personal secretary, and had struck river crossings in Lebanon overnight.
Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs just before midnight and at dawn, and hit towns across the south on Thursday morning, Lebanese state media said.
For its part, Hezbollah, which had initially said it would pause attacks on Israel in line with the ceasefire, said it was resuming them on Thursday morning and had fired once across the border and twice at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Families gathered on Thursday at Beirut hospitals to identify slain loved ones, and rescuers worked through the night to try to save those trapped under rubble from attacks that hit populated areas without customary warnings to civilians.
“This is my place, this is my house, I’ve been living here like more than 51 years. So, everything destroyed. See?” said Naim Chebbo, sweeping shattered glass and debris from his home in Beirut after strikes destroyed the building next door.
Lebanon declared a day of national mourning and shut state offices. At one funeral in central Beirut, mourners gathered quietly to bury a man who had been killed. His wife had survived the bombing, which sheared off half the building and left survivors trapped on upper floors for hours.
MOURNING FOR KHAMENEI
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told BBC Radio that Israel’s strikes on Lebanon were a “grave violation” of the ceasefire.
“It was a catastrophe, could actually end in more catastrophe, and this is the nature of this rogue behaviour that we are seeing from Israel in the whole Middle East.”
Inside Iran, where the halt to six weeks of U.S. and Iranian airstrikes has been portrayed as total victory for the clerical rulers, huge crowds turned out to commemorate 40 days of mourning for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on the war’s first day.
State TV showed crowds in Tehran, Kermanshah, Yazd and Zahedan, with mourners in black carrying Iranian flags and portraits of Khamenei and his son and successor Mojtaba. Large commemorative billboards were displayed and a huge Hezbollah flag hung from one building.
PHYSICAL OIL PRICES SPIKE
After six weeks of war, Trump has sought an off-ramp before the economic consequences derail his presidency. His announcement of a ceasefire has tamed a surge in benchmark oil prices, based on financial contracts to deliver oil a month in the future. But with a fifth of global supply still trapped, present-day prices of physical oil and fuels are still rising.
Though Europe and Asia have been worst hit so far, the U.S. retail price for diesel rose to $5.69 a gallon on Thursday, just 13 cents below the all-time high.
Trump, who announced the truce on Tuesday night just before a deadline he had set to destroy Iran’s “whole civilisation” unless it unblocked the strait, threatened more attacks late on Wednesday.
If Iran did not comply, then “the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before,” he posted on social media.
Though Trump has declared victory, Washington has not achieved the aims he announced to justify the war at its outset: to eliminate Iran’s ability to attack its neighbours, destroy its nuclear programme and create conditions that would make it easier for Iranians to topple their government.
Iran still possesses missiles and drones that can hit its neighbours and a stockpile of more than 400 kg (900 pounds) of uranium enriched close to the level for a weapon. Its rulers, who had faced a mass uprising just months ago, survived the superpower onslaught with no sign of organised opposition.
And they emerge having demonstrated their ability to exert control of the strait, despite a massive U.S. military presence in the region built up over decades to protect Washington’s allies and safeguard shipping.
Iran is pressing for even more U.S. concessions in a final deal, including the total lifting of U.S. and international financial sanctions that have crippled its economy, and acknowledgment of its control over the strait, an international waterway previously freely open to all trade.
Iranian officials say they plan to impose rules on passage through the strait, including a potential fee to use it, similar to those charged by countries that operate man-made canals over their territory.
The Revolutionary Guards published a map of the strait on Thursday with the main shipping channels through its centre marked as unsafe, ordering ships instead to sail around islands closer to the Iranian shore.
(Reporting by Reuters bureausWriting by Peter GraffEditing by Gareth Jones)
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