A potential agreement between Washington and Tehran hinges on US President Donald Trump’s administration agreeing to release $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets, CNN quoted Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, as saying on Friday.
Meanwhile, the United States imposed new Iran-related sanctions on Friday, targeting several entities, individuals and LPG tankers, the US Treasury Department’s website showed.
Among 12 entities designated are five that are based in the Marshall Islands, four in the UAE and one in China, according to details posted to the department’s website. Six vessels were targeted, including four Panama-flagged tankers.
Meanwhile, Iran has reaffirmed support for Hezbollah and demanded that Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon, underscoring complications facing an interim deal to end the broader conflict between the US and Iran.
Tehran has made a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah a condition for any peace deal with Washington to resolve the regional war, now in its fourth month and restart shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel erupted at the start of March, two days after the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran. Hezbollah said its actions were in support of Tehran.
“This war will end only when it ends in Lebanon as well”, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said late on Thursday.
“The end of the war on Lebanon must be accompanied by the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they have occupied”, he said. The comments came after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected a US-brokered pact between Israel and the Lebanese government to halt the fighting in Lebanon.
The deal did not provide for an Israeli withdrawal and Hezbollah had not been party to the negotiations. Israel has kept up strikes in southern Lebanon and has said its forces would not withdraw or halt operations in the country amidst increasing friction with the US.
