UK, France, Germany ready to join efforts in Strait of Hormuz; Trump’s latest comments on Iran
Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, on Thursday said “the necessity of a ceasefire and to provide the necessary guarantees for its success by the parties concerned,” according to a statement carried by Agence France-Presse. Welcoming France’s Jean-Noel Barrot, Aoun also emphasised “what is important is to stop the escalation” between Hizbullah and Israel.
Barrot is on a short visit to Lebanon that “reflects France’s support and solidarity with the Lebanese people, who have been dragged into a war they did not choose,” the French foreign ministry said. Barrot also met prime minister Nawaf Salam and speaker of parliament Nabih Berri.
French president Emmanuel Macron spoke on Friday with the Lebanese president, prime minister and parliament speaker, and the next day called on Israel to agree to direct talks with the Lebanese government. Macron expressed France’s readiness to facilitate the talks by hosting them in Paris.
- Guardian Investors had reckoned up to now that the conflict would be relatively short-lived. Now they fear it will be more prolonged and that even if the US action ends, disruption to energy shipments and infrastructure may continue. Central to today’s events was the Iranian attack on key Qatari LNG infrastructure.
Qatar is responsible for around one fifth of global LNG and experts fear the damage could take months to repair. In turn this has pushed up natural gas prices - central to Ireland’s electricity supply - while oil prices have also jumped.
Thomas Pugh, chief economist at RSM, reckons Irish inflation could - based on current energy prices - head back over three per cent in the short term and could go to four per cent if gas prices stay high long enough to feed through to electricity. This will increase pressure on the Government to introduce supports.
And investors and pension fund holders will worry about a rerun of 2022, when both equity and bond prices fell. For more from Cliff Taylor on this subject, read Smart Money here. An Iranian missile attack hit Israel’s oil refineries in the northern port city of Haifa but did not cause “significant damage“, Israel’s energy ministry said on Thursday.
Energy minister Eli Cohen said power was briefly disrupted, with electricity restored to most of those who were affected, Reuters reported. “The damage to the power grid in the north is localized and not significant,” Cohen said.
“Also, in the barrage towards the north, there was no significant damage to Israeli infrastructure sites.“ Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted refineries in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, and in Ashdod, in the country’s south, “along with a range of security targets and military support centres of the Zionist regime“, which it said “were hit by pinpoint missiles“.
There was no immediate word on whether the Ashdod refinery was hit.
- Guardian Iran are due to play all three of their group matches in the US, but the country’s football federation chief, Mehdi Taj, said in quotes reported by the Fars news agency on Wednesday: “We will boycott America, but we will not boycott the World Cup.” That followed on from quotes attributed to Taj posted on the X account of the Iranian embassy in Mexico on Tuesday, in which he claimed to be “negotiating” with FIFA to move Iran’s matches to Mexico.
- Press Association