Dorothy

Another ceasefire, between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, was shaken Saturday as each side fired at the other and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “vigorously attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.”

Tehran has noted that indirect talks with the U.S. last year and early this year over its nuclear program, the issue long at the center of tensions, ended with Iran being attacked by the U.S. and Israel, adding to its wariness.

The standoff around the strait continues The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, is nearly 50% higher than when the war began because of Iran’s grip on the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.

Iran attacked three ships this week, while the U.S. maintains a blockade on Iranian ports. Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said his country was sending minesweeper ships to the Mediterranean to help remove Iranian mines from the strait once hostilities end.

Also on Saturday, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran’s international airport for the first time since the war began with US and Israeli strikes two months ago. Flights were scheduled to depart for Istanbul, Oman’s capital of Muscat and the Saudi city of Medina, according to Iran’s state-run television. Iran partly reopened its airspace earlier this month due to the ceasefire.

A growing toll even as ceasefires hold Since the war began, authorities say at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,496 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the Iran war started.

Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.

“I’ve told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18 hour flight to go there,” Trump said, according to Fox News. “We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing’.”

Then, in a post on Truth Social, Trump said Iran is suffering from "tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’"

Prior to the cancellation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday, "We've certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days" regarding a potential deal to end the conflict.

Vance, Witkoff and Kushner were in Pakistan earlier this month for the first round of talks with the Iranians, but no deal was reached after their in-person meeting.