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Iran accused the United States on Tuesday May 26 of having violated the ceasefire after nighttime American strikes in the south of the country, while in Lebanon Israeli attacks left 31 dead, according to local authorities. These strikes are a blow to apparent progress in negotiations to bring a lasting end to the war in the Middle East.
At the same time, as a further step towards calm, the Iranian agency Isna reported on Wednesday May 27 that air traffic was now reopened without interruption in 10 airports in the country. Among them are Tehran’s two major airports, which had already resumed activity in April after weeks of closure due to the war.
The signs of openness in recent days have given way to martial rhetoric, in a conflict where the weapons have been almost silent since April 8 but where the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues, causing oil prices to soar.
“The American terrorist army, continuing its illegal and unjustified actions since the ceasefire […]has committed over the last 48 hours a flagrant violation of the ceasefire in the Hormozgan region”, declared the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without specifying the nature of the facts. And to warn: “The Islamic Republic will not let any malicious act go unchecked. answer.”
The American command for the Middle East (Centcom) announced that it had struck missile launch sites in the south during the night. Iran has not officially confirmed the information, but state media reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas and said an investigation was underway to determine the origin.
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, claimed to have shot down an American drone and fired on other aircraft trying to enter the country’s airspace, without specifying the date.
Internet partially restored
Buoyed the day before by the hope of an agreement, the world markets found on Tuesday “a more cautious tone”, comments Daniela Hathorn, analyst at Capital.com, with the exception of Wall Street which again reached closing heights. Oil started to rise again on Tuesday, before falling again on Wednesday morning in Asia.
In Iran, internet access was partially restored on Tuesday according to the foreign cybersecurity monitoring NGO NetBlocks, after an almost total cut of almost three months due to the war, triggered on February 28 by the Israeli-American attack.
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“For a few minutes, I have been able to open international websites with my service provider,” a 22-year-old resident of the western city of Kermanshah told AFP, adding that she still needed a VPN (virtual private network) to access social networks.
Despite the threats, diplomatic negotiations continue. Senior Iranian officials, including chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, visited Doha on Monday, their first since the start of hostilities.
The governor of the Central Bank also made the trip to discuss funds frozen abroad due to American sanctions. Tehran demands the release of 24 billion in assets, according to the Tasnim news agency. This is one of the main points of contention, alongside the nuclear aspect which Iran wishes to address in a second step. Washington, which suspects Tehran of wanting to acquire an atomic bomb, is demanding the destruction of the stock of highly enriched uranium, whose fate has been uncertain since previous Israeli-American strikes, in June 2025.
Réunion à Washington
Chinese diplomacy, which communicates with both parties, reiterated Beijing’s call for respect for the ceasefire and expressed the hope that Washington and Tehran would seek a compromise, the state agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
During a telephone conversation Tuesday with the Qatari leader, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian indicated that his country was “ready to reach a respectful framework to end the war”, according to state radio and television Irib.
His American counterpart, for his part, is seeking a way out of this unpopular war which has seriously disrupted the world economy due to Tehran’s virtual blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of crude oil and liquefied natural gas normally transit. consumed around the world. Its reopening is a major issue in the negotiations and tensions remain high: an oil tanker was hit on Tuesday off the coast of Oman, according to the British maritime agency UKMTO.
Donald Trump is due to meet his government on Wednesday to discuss Iran in particular.
At least 31 dead in Lebanon
On the Lebanese front, the Israeli army carried out new strikes on Tuesday in the south of the country, killing 31 people, according to the Lebanese government. Thirty-one people, including at least four children and three women, were killed in the attacks and 40 others were injured, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Fourteen people were killed in Burj al-Shamali, near Tyre, the ministry said.
At the same time, Israel announced that it would extend its ground operations against the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement beyond the “yellow line” that it established in the south of the country.
“We are intensifying our action in Lebanon,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated on Tuesday, despite a ceasefire in force since April 17.
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