US-Iran talks to begin in Switzerland; ships pass through Hormuz

The New Arab's live blog on the US-Iran deal has now concluded, and will resume in the morning at 0700am.

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People living in Gaza deserve to regain their "dignity" rather than merely survive, the UN aid chief said Thursday, as he criticised Israeli obstructions to the distribution of humanitarian assistance.

Tom Fletcher, addressing the United Nations Security Council, acknowledged the flow of aid has improved since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on 10 October 10 - with an average of 100 deliveries entering the Palestinian territory each day.

But, he said, "these fragile gains are the bare minimum of what Palestinians need and what we can provide - and what international law demands."

"We cannot allow the summit of our ambition and our will to be a world where children have sufficient calories to survive and are spared constant bombing, yet remain hungry, bitten by rats, homeless and out of school," Fletcher added.

"It is not enough to silence the weapons - we must restore dignity."

Fletcher specifically called for the opening of all crossing points into Gaza and the immediate lifting of Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods such as medical equipment and fuel.

Bushra Khalidi, a humanitarian officer with the NGO Oxfam invited to address the Security Council, called on member states to act with "urgency, with courage, with humanity."

Iraq's oilfields are ready to resume production and a return to normal output levels will take place gradually until previous production rates are restored, Oil Minister Basim Mohammed told Iraq's state news agency early on Friday.

He said state oil marketer SOMO had contacted all customers to nominate chartered and owned tankers to load contracted Iraqi crude oil cargoes from the country's southern ports. He added that the resumption of exports would be gradual and dependent on the smooth passage of shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

U. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States expects "a complete ceasefire on all fronts," including Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Israel.

"We encourage everyone in the Middle East Region to maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations to beautifully unfold," Trump wrote on Truth Social, one day after he signed a memorandum of understanding to end a nearly four-month conflict with Iran. 

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday he had authorised a memorandum of understanding signed by the Iranian and US presidents, despite holding a different view, after receiving assurances from President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior officials that Iran's rights and the interests of the "Resistance Front" would be safeguarded.

In a written message to the Iranian nation, Khamenei said Pezeshkian, in his capacity as head of the Supreme National Security Council, had accepted responsibility for ensuring the agreement protected Iran's interests and pledged not to yield if Washington made what he described as excessive demands.

Khamenei added that future face-to-face negotiations with the United States would not mean accepting "the enemy's position". 

The US government on Thursday announced sanctions against several Lebanese officials it said were aligned with Hezbollah and members of the sanctioned Alaa Hassan Hamieh business network for obstructing Lebanon’s peace process and delaying the disarmament of Hezbollah.

The US Treasury Department said its Office of Foreign Assets Control was also designating individuals in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Oman who it said were raising funds and operating front companies to generate revenue for Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said the deal with Iran to end the war was a "victory" for the United States, rejecting mounting criticism including from some in his own Republican party.

"There is no 300 Billion Dollar payment to Iran by the U.S. That's Fake News! All there is for the U.S. is Success, Lower Oil Prices, and Victory. Check out the Stock Market. Dumocrat propaganda at play!!!" Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.

American forces on Thursday lifted their naval blockade of Iranian ports after more than two months of preventing ships from sailing from or to the Islamic republic, the US military said.

"Today, US forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas," US Central Command said in a post on X, adding that American warships "will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to."

Today, U.S. forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, in accordance with the President's direction. American forces are not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 18, 2026

US Vice President JD Vance on Friday issued an extraordinary rebuke to Israeli critics of the Iran deal, warning them not to alienate their "only powerful ally" left in the world.

Vance told members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet criticizing the agreement to "wake up and smell the reality," amid growing tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump.

"What I will say, and this does bother me, is that you've seen people within Bibi's cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal, and in some ways very personally attacked the president of the United States," Vance told reporters in a briefing at the White House.

"If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world."

Vance credited Netanyahu for not personally criticizing the deal, but explicitly raised the huge amounts of military aid that the United States gives Israel, its key ally in the Middle East.

The two countries jointly launched the war on Iran on 28 February but Trump has chastised Israel for continuing attacks on Lebanon that threatened to derail the deal with Tehran.

"The other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars," Vance added.

"The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump, and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation."

In an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, Vance directly named Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as having attacked the deal.

"I guess my response to them would be -- what is your exact proposal? You're a country of nine million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have," Vance told the Times.

The White House provided a copy of the interim US-Iran agreement to the US Congress on Thursday, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters, a day after US President Donald Trump signed an interim deal with Tehran to end the war.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored the importance of maintaining close ties with the United States on Thursday, saying Washington had stood by its ally during the Middle East war.

"The struggle is not yet over, and further challenges lie ahead. They require calm judgement, steadfast defence of Israel's security interests, and at the same time the preservation of our vital relationship with our American friends, who stood shoulder to shoulder with us in this fight -- a partnership we deeply appreciate," Netanyahu said at a function, according to a statement issued by his office.

Netanyahu has still not commented directly on the deal, though some of his coalition members dismissed it even before the text's details were released on Wednesday.

His remarks on Thursday come amid fraying ties between the US and Israel over the Iran agreement, which Israeli analysts have also sharply criticised, arguing that it effectively locks in Iranian gains while deferring the issue most sensitive to Israel: its security.

The details released on Wednesday call for "an immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon".

While the agreement addresses the dilution of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, it makes no mention of how to address Iran's missile programme -- the dismantling of which had been a key Israeli objective during the war.

Hours before the agreement was announced, US President Donald Trump excoriated Netanyahu for launching attacks in Lebanon that threatened to derail it.

"He's a very difficult guy," Trump said of Netanyahu, "and to be honest with you, he should be very thankful to us for doing this. Because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn't be around for two hours."

Lebanese authorities have arrested a citizen suspected of having imported parts used to manufacture Hezbollah drones, a judicial source told AFP on Thursday.

 Hezbollah has been using fiber optic drones, which are resistant to jamming, in their fight against Israel since early March.

The judicial source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the businessman was arrested at the request of France as part of an investigation.

The source said the man had admitted to importing electrical equipment and delivering it to someone who could be a Hezbollah member but denied knowing what the items were used for.

Britain's international development minister Jenny Chapman called on Thursday for Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon so that families displaced by three months of war could return to their homes.

"Israel should withdraw from southern Lebanon, absolutely. Displacement we know anywhere in the world causes huge disruption," she told Reuters while visiting a school where displaced families were sheltering. "That is why we want to get the conditions right so that people can return home and be secure, be safe and be confident they can stay in their homes for the long term." 

Qatari Prime Minister and top diplomat Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke to his counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saudi on the new latest US-Iran agreement on Thursday.

Both countries were dragged into the US-Israel assault on Iran in February, after Tehran struck US interests and civilian infrastructure in response to Washington's aggression.

In their phone call, the two FMs also reviewed bilateral ties and regional developments in their call.

At least three people have been killed in Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood by Israeli drone strikes on Thursday, medical sources have said, as cited by the Palestinian Wafa agency.

The attack struck a civilian car near the Abu Khadra Mosque, which also injured several others.

This comes as NGOs confirmed that at least 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement with Israel was agreed on in October lats year.

US consumers saw some relief at the fuel pump on Thursday, as the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline fell below $4 for the first time since March, according to the AAA motor club.

Global oil prices have tumbled after US President Donald Trump and Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian signed off on a deal to end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to tanker and other shipping traffic.

The war sent energy prices surging, after Iran's retaliatory actions included blocking the vital waterway, through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies normally pass.

US households have been battered by years of high prices, and the energy price shock has sent inflation surging to a three-year high.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline logged in at $3.99 on Thursday, according to AAA. It remains 34 percent higher than on the day before the war was launched.

On Wednesday, US Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh vowed that the central bank would "deliver price stability," with some policymakers indicating interest rate hikes were on the horizon.

The Fed has a long-term two-percent target for inflation, but price increases have remained above that level for more than five years.

In April, the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation came in at 3.8 percent, fuelled in part by surging energy prices.

Affordability is a key political issue as the United States gears up for midterm elections in November, with the Democratic Party seeking to wrest control of both houses of Congress from Trump's Republicans.