Conflict in the Middle East Iran will not approve any agreement without guarantees on its rights

(Tehran) Iran on Sunday conditioned any agreement with the United States on the guarantee of its “rights”, stressing that it believed “neither in words nor in promises” American in the laborious negotiations underway to end the war in the Middle East which extends into southern Lebanon. Â

While the two countries seemed to be getting closer to an agreement in recent days, the New York Times reported on Saturday, without further details, that the American president had toughened his proposal and sent a new version of a possible memorandum of understanding to Tehran.

“Discussions and exchanges of messages are still ongoing” and “everything that is currently being said is speculation and should not be taken seriously,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, quoted by the state television.

“We will not approve any agreement until we are certain that the rights of the Iranian people have been fully guaranteed,” Iran’s main negotiator, head of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, had previously declared in a video broadcast on state television. Â

According to the American site Axios, Mr. Trump, whose declared priority is to put an end to the Iranian nuclear program and to restore maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, wants more firmness in Washington’s position.

“The only guarantee I must have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They accepted that, and it was very interesting,” he said in an interview recorded during the week and broadcast Saturday on Fox News.

Tehran has always denied wanting to acquire atomic weapons, despite suspicions in this direction from the United States and many countries.

Trump « pas pressé »

One of Washington’s stated objectives at the start of the war was to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, and more than 80% of missile sites were struck according to the United States.

But according to CNN on Sunday, satellite images show that Iran took advantage of the ceasefire to bulldoze 50 of 69 tunnel entrances in the 18 sites affected by Israel and the United States.

For its part, Iran wants above all to obtain the lifting of American sanctions and the release of its frozen assets, and claims to maintain control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which it almost locked at the start of the war.

Tehran also insists that any agreement includes an end to hostilities in Lebanon, where Israel wants to “eliminate” pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

As for nuclear power, Iran wishes to discuss it at a later stage.

The war was triggered on February 28 by an Israeli-American offensive, while Tehran and Washington had resumed nuclear negotiations. The conflict, which has left thousands dead, is shaking the world economy by pushing up oil prices. “Slowly but surely, I believe we are getting what we want,” otherwise “things will end up differently,” declared President Trump, “no hurry.”

And the United States is “more than capable” of going to war again against Iran if the talks fail, its Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Saturday.

The American army, which maintains a blockade on Iranian ports in response to that of Hormuz, indicated on Saturday that it had targeted and stopped a cargo ship sailing under the Gambian flag trying to reach an Iranian port.

The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, for their part, claimed on Sunday to have shot down an American drone which, according to them, was preparing to enter Iranian territorial waters for “hostile operations”.

Meeting at the UN for Lebanon

On the Lebanese front, the Israeli army continues to advance in the south of the country where it has carried out new strikes, and Hezbollah continues its attacks particularly in the Israeli north, despite the truce in force since April 17, but not respected.

An Israeli strike carried out at dawn on Sunday on the town of Deir Zahrani, in the district of Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, left eight dead, including three women, and 19 injured, including five children and six women, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.

The Israeli army also seized on Sunday the medieval Beaufort Fortress, a strategic site where it had established a base during the two decades of Israeli occupation, which ended in 2000.

A “decisive turning point”, according to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, considered on the contrary that “nothing justifies the major escalation underway in South Lebanon”.

France has requested an emergency meeting at the Security Council, which will be held on Monday, according to diplomatic sources at AFP.