Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi (AFP).
Israeli Channel 12 reported on Saturday that, at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, the Israeli army is halting fire in Lebanon, but will not withdraw from the areas it controls.
Channel 12 said that the decision by Netanyahu and Katz to cease fire in Lebanon came in coordination with the United States.
For his part, the Walla website quoted an Israeli military source as saying that Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir issued instructions for a ceasefire in southern Lebanon, at the conclusion of a meeting to assess the security situation.
This comes after Iran announced today that it closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic, in response to Israel’s continued launch of bloody attacks in southern Lebanon, coinciding with its sending a delegation to Switzerland to continue talks aimed at ending the war in the Middle East based on the memorandum of understanding between the two parties.
But the US military denied closing the strait, saying that the vital waterway was still open and that its forces were monitoring the situation to ensure this continued.
US Central Command spokesman Tim Hawkins said: “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz… Navigation traffic continues, and American forces are monitoring the situation to ensure this continues.”
Earlier today, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced that US-Iranian technical talks will be held tomorrow, Sunday, in Switzerland, after they were postponed and not held on their scheduled date, Friday.
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi landed in Iran and met with Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
The Washington Post reported that neither Washington nor Tehran wants the truce process to collapse completely.
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