Middle East crisis live: Trump suggests countries in region should sign Abraham accords recognising Israel under any deal

Iranian top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and foreign minister Abbas Araqchi are in Doha for talks with Qatar’s prime minister on a potential US-Iran deal to end the conflict, an official briefed on the visit said on Monday.

The discussions are focused primarily on the strait of Hormuz and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the official told Reuters.

Iran’s central bank governor is also part of the delegation to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final agreement, according to the official.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa discussed by phone the need to find a rapid diplomatic resolution to the Iran crisis, the Kremlin said on Monday.

It comes as Iran warned on Monday that, while some progress had been made, it was not yet close to striking a deal with the United States to end the Middle East war.

World oil prices tumbled on renewed optimism about an agreement, after top US diplomat Marco Rubio suggested a deal could be reached within the day – but Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman responded: “No one can make such a claim.”

Donald Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that the agreement would include opening of the strait of Hormuz, a crucial chokepoint for global trade, which Iran has effectively shut since the US and Israel started the war in February.

But the US president did not mention Iran’s nuclear program and highly enriched uranium, despite repeatedly insisting that Tehran renounce any nuclear ambitions was a “red line” in negotiations to end the war. Iranian officials have sought to negotiate those matters at a later date.

The peace draft includes a 60-day ceasefire extension, during which the strait of Hormuz would be reopened, according to Axios.

Iran would agree to clear mines it deployed in the strait and allow ships to pass freely, and in exchange, the US would lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports. During that time Iran would also be able to freely sell oil and negotiations would be held on the nuclear issue.

The apparent concessions from Washington have triggered alarm among several Republican foreign policy hawks.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump, warned: “If a deal is struck to end the Iranian conflict because it is believed that the strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism and Iran still possesses the capability to destroy major Gulf oil infrastructure, then Iran will be perceived as being a dominate force requiring a diplomatic solution.”

The perception of Iran being able to “terrorize” the strait of Hormuz, and its ability to damage oil infrastructure across the Gulf, amounts to a “major shift of the balance of power in the region and over time will be a nightmare for Israel”, Graham argued.

“If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime – still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America’ – now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,” Texas senator Ted Cruz wrote on X.

In a post on Truth Social, the US president, Donald Trump, has again hit out at US lawmakers who reacted furiously to reports that a proposed deal with Iran contained major concessions from Washington.

“I laugh at all of the Dumocrats, RINOS, and Fools who know nothing about the potential deal I am making with Iran, things that haven’t even been negotiated yet,” Trump wrote.

“The deal with Iran will either be a great and meaningful one, or there will be no deal. It will be the exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster negotiated by the failed Obama Administration, which was a direct and open path to a Nuclear Weapon for Iran,” he said, referring to the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment in return for sanctions relief.

Trump withdrew from that international deal in 2018, saying the agreement was “rotten” and complaining it only limited Iran’s nuclear activities for a fixed period. He has claimed the new deal will be far superior, without saying how.

The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for 10 Lebanese towns and villages this morning as it continues displacing residents ahead of attacks it says are targeting Hezbollah although many civilians are being killed in them. You can read more information about the latest evacuation order in this post on X.

Israel has continued striking Lebanon regularly, both south and north of the Litani River in south Lebanon, despite a US-brokered ceasefire coming into effect last month. It says it is targeting Hezbollah sites including weapons storage facilities and command centres.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, has fired rockets and drones into northern Israel and against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon as it rejects pushes for its disarmament and Israeli occupation of some of southern Lebanon.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,111 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Israel’s renewed war on Lebanon started on 2 March.

Israel’s deadly air assault – and ground invasion – were in response to Hezbollah firing rockets at northern Israel after the US and Israel killed the former Iranian supreme leader in Tehran on 28 February.

Iran is pushing for an and to Israel’s war on Lebanon as part of its negotiations with the US. As part of the emerging US-Iran deal, Israel could reportedly be allowed to strike Hezbollah if the militant group instigates or carries out attacks, giving the Israeli military large scope going forward.

Despite a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel being signed last month, regular Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon have continued unabated.

Lebanon’s state-run National News agency (NNA) reported this morning that the Israeli army carried out airstrikes in towns in the Bint Jbeil district, and the towns of al-Mansouri, al-Qulaylah and al-Haniyeh were hit by Israeli airstrikes and phosphorus shelling in the Tyre district.

The NNA also reported that three people were killed after Israeli warplanes carried out three drone attacks this morning, targeting a vehicle on the Kfar Rumman-Jarmaq highway, another on the Jarmaq-Khardali road, and a motorcycle near the Usersif Hotel.

We have not yet been able to independently verify these reports.

In a social media update, the IDF said that a drone was forced to perform an emergency landing in an “open area” in central Israel earlier today due to a technical malfunction.

“The aircraft was collected by IDF forces, there is no damage and no casualties,” it wrote in a short statement.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, will not participate in the UN security council meeting in New York due to issues related to a US visa, Al Jazeera quoted the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, as having said earlier.

Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, has said that time is working against the US and warned that Iran does not respond well to threats.

In a post on X, he wrote:

During the military war, our tactic was an eye for an eye; in the diplomatic war, it is action against action. Do not believe the bluff of the failed president; time is against the Americans.

If they want an agreement, they should negotiate; if they want $6 gas, they should stand firm and bluff until the grass grows under their feet. Iran does not bow to force or threats.

The US has repeatedly raised the prospect of a resumption of attacks on Iran if the negotiations do not bear fruit.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson cast doubt about how trustworthy the US were, saying there are no “guarantees” that Washington will honour whatever deal is agreed upon.

The current US-Israeli war on Iran and the 12-day war launched by Israel last June both began when Iran and the US were engaging in talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Esmail Baghaei also told journalists in the briefing that the focus of this phase of talks is not on “the nuclear issue” but “ending the war”, including Israel’s assault on Lebanon.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has been speaking at a news briefing about the contours of a potential deal with the US to end the war.

“It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion,” he said.

“But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent – no one can make such a claim.”

A potential deal reportedly includes a 60-day ceasefire extension, reopening the strait of Hormuz to international vessels and a plan for further negotiations over Iran’s much contested nuclear programme.

However, the deal has to be approved by Iran’s leadership, including the apparently hard to reach supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, which could take some time.

Iran’s top negotiator in talks with the US, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, has been reelected as the country’s parliamentary speaker, semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday.

During military conflict Iran’s tactic was “an eye for an eye,” and in diplomatic conflict it is “action for action“, Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson of the Iranian parliament, has said.

In a posting on X on Monday, he said:

During the military war, our tactic was an eye for an eye; in the diplomatic war, it is action against action. Do not believe the bluff of the failed president; time is against the Americans.

If they want an agreement, they should negotiate; if they want $6 gas, they should stand firm and bluff until the grass grows under their feet. Iran does not bow to force or threats.

Iran executed a man over charges related to the anti-government protests that took place nationwide in January, state media reported on Monday.

The individual was identified as Abbas Akbari, Reuters cited state media as saying.

Israeli strikes pounded south and east Lebanon on Sunday despite the ceasefire as the leader of Hezbollah expressed hope for an agreement between Iran and the US that also ends hostilities in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health ministry raised the overall toll in the war since 2 March to 3,123 killed.

It said two people including a paramedic from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were killed on Sunday in Israeli raids.

A day earlier 11 people including six women and a child were killed in a single strike in the south’s Sir al-Gharbiyeh, the ministry said on Sunday, decrying a “massacre”.

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued attacks on each other despite the nominal ceasefire, as mentioned.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that “God willing, this [Iran-US] agreement will be finalised … and accordingly that we too will be among those included in this agreement” on a full cessation of hostilities.

After Qassem’s speech, US secretary of state Marco Rubio accused Hezbollah of trying to plunge Lebanon “back into chaos”.

Israel said on Monday a soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, taking to 23 the number of its troops killed in the war with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

A military statement cited by AFP named him as 19-year-old Sgt Nehoray Leizer of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, who “fell in combat in southern Lebanon”.

During the incident in which Leizer was killed, “an additional soldier was severely injured”, the Israeli military said separately on Telegram.

A total of 24 Israelis have been killed in the conflict – 23 soldiers and one civilian contractor – since hostilities resumed on 2 March.

Marco Rubio also told reporters in New Delhi that “Israel always has a right to protect itself”.

“If Hezbollah is going to launch missiles or launches missiles at them, Israel has every right to respond to that, or to prevent that from happening,” the US secretary of state was quoted as saying.

That’s always been understood. It’s being understood during the ceasefire.”

Israel and Hezbollah have continued trading strikes during the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which began on 16 April and was recently extended by 45 days.

The potential deal between the US and Iran to end their war also reportedly requires Israel to stop its offensive in Lebanon.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Donald Trump had reaffirmed his support for Israel’s right “to defend itself against threats on all fronts, including in Lebanon”.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Monday that a deal to end the war with Iran could materialise “today”.

His comments came after oil prices plunged and Asian shares rose earlier in the day amid optimism that the US and Iran were close to an agreement that might secure a lasting end to the three-month war and reopen the strait of Hormuz. Oil prices hit a two-week low, with Brent crude futures falling 4.5% to $98.83 a barrel by 11.50pm GMT.

“We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today – I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Rubio said in New Delhi of a potential agreement.

“We have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the straits,” he said. “It has a lot of support in the Gulf.”

Rubio’s remarks came after Donald Trump tempered expectations of a deal, saying on Sunday that he had told his negotiators “not to rush”. Negotiations with Iran were “proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner”, the US president said.

Middle East officials told the Associated Press on Sunday that the US was close to reaching a deal with Iran that would end the war and reopen the strait, a vital conduit for global energy supplies.

On Sunday Trump said the US blockade on Iranian ships in the Hormuz strait would “remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified and signed”. “Both sides must take their time and get it right,” he added.

As details of the possible agreement emerged over the weekend, critics including Trump’s former secretary of state Mike Pompeo said it offered little beyond the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated by former president Barack Obama, from which Trump withdrew during his first term.

Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic member of the Senate foreign relations committee, said the deal’s reported outlines would amount to little more than “the prewar status quo” with Iran.