Israeli military carried out a strike on Wednesday on the southern suburbs of Beirut in a Hizbullah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, targeting the commander of the militant group’s elite Radwan force, according to an official Israeli statement.
The strike was the first to hit Beirut’s suburbs since the April 16th ceasefire, although hostilities in the south of Lebanon have not halted.
“Radwan operatives, led by this commander, were responsible for firing at Israeli communities and harming IDF soldiers,” a joint statement by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz said.
Elsewhere, the US military said it fired on an Iranian oil tanker as US president Donald Trump sought to pressure Tehran into reaching a deal to end the war.
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A US fighter jet shot out the rudder of the tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it tried to breach the US military’s blockade of Iran’s ports, US Central Command said in a social media post on Wednesday.
The attack occurred as Iran and the US are officially in a ceasefire and as the two countries appeared to be moving closer to an initial agreement to end the war.
Seeking to break a deadlock over the Strait of Hormuz, French president Emmanuel Macron hopes to persuade the United States and Iran to reopen the contested waterway even before they agree on a truce to end the two-month war, two senior French officials said on Wednesday.
Macron is proposing that the two sides remove the status of the strait from broader negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, ballistic missiles and support for militia groups in the region, these officials said.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Macron said on Wednesday that he had held talks with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, during which Macron had reaffirmed the importance of freeing up shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
He said he had encouraged Iran’s president to look at the plans by France and Britain to set up an international mission to lay the groundwork for safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
“I have invited the Iranian president to take advantage of this opportunity, and I intend to discuss the topic with president Trump,” Macron said on X.
A compromise, French officials said, could allow a multinational force that France is marshalling, along with Britain and other European countries, to begin escorting commercial ships through the strait relatively quickly, restoring a semblance of normality to a gravely disrupted global economy.
Iran is likely to baulk at such a proposal because it would remove much of its leverage in the broader negotiations with the US.
It is also unclear where Macron’s proposal would fit within the overall state of negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Iran has said it is reviewing a US proposal, the contents of which were unclear, but had also earlier dismissed a proposal as a “list of American wishes”.
The French military said it had deployed an aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to the Red Sea on Wednesday to prepare for the peacekeeping mission “as soon as circumstances permit”.
The French officials said the carrier, which is sailing with escort ships, would send a signal that the multinational force was ready and capable of securing the strait, which was first closed by Iran and later blockaded by the US Navy.
Trump on Tuesday paused a US military operation to escort commercial ships through the strait, citing “great progress” in negotiations to end the war. But there was little public sign of diplomatic achievements, and by Wednesday both sides were back to playing down the prospect for peace.
Trump warned that if Iran did not agree to unspecified concessions, “the bombing starts”.
Macron’s intervention reflected the mounting frustration of leaders in Europe and Asia about the economic costs of a blocked strait. France and Britain have led efforts to assemble a force to escort ships and carry out demining operations. But they have said the operation would only begin once the security situation stabilised.
The continuing hostility between Iran and the US has left the Europeans on the sidelines, even as the interruption of shipping is hurting their economies and threatening their security.
On Tuesday, a container ship owned by the French company CMA CGM was struck by fire while transiting the strait. The incident damaged the vessel and injured several crew members, according to the company.
– This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Additional reporting: Reuters/AP
