U.S. President Donald Trump vowed Friday to have the Strait of Hormuz open “with or without” Iran’s cooperation, and said his top priority in peace talks was to ensure Tehran can’t have a nuclear weapon.

Mr. Trump has dispatched Vice-President J.D. Vance to Pakistan to meet with top Iranian officials in a bid to reach a peace deal following a two-week ceasefire that was agreed on Tuesday.

“We’re going to open up the Gulf with or without them...or the strait as they call it. I think it’s going to go pretty quickly, and if it doesn’t, we’ll be able to finish it off,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he left Washington for a domestic trip.

“We will have that open fairly soon.”-- AFP

An Iranian negotiating ‌delegation led by Parliament Speaker ⁠Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf arrived ‌in Islamabad on Friday ‌for ‌peace ⁠talks with ⁠the United States, Iranian media reported on ‌Friday, adding that negotiations would begin ‌if Washington accepted Tehran’s “preconditions.”

The delegation ⁠includes senior political, military ‌and economic officials, including Iranian Foreign Minister, defence council ‌secretary, central bank governor and several ⁠members of Parliament.

-- Reuters

Britain will convene a latest round of ‌talks with allies next week over ⁠ways to free up the Strait of Hormuz ‌to shipping without resorting to ‌paying tolls to ‌Iran, ⁠a British official ⁠with knowledge of the planned discussions said on Friday.

Officials from ‌Britain’s Foreign Ministry were due to meet counterparts from countries ‌which took part in discussions on April 2 that ⁠were led by U.K. Foreign Secretary ‌Yvette Cooper, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The discussions would include coordinated economic ‌and political measures, including possible sanctions and ways to secure the ⁠release of thousands of ⁠ships and sailors trapped in the ‌Strait, the official said. -- Reuters

Pope Leo XIV amplified his condemnation of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran on Friday, saying that “God does not bless any conflict” and certainly doesn’t side with those who drop bombs.

Leo spoke during a gathering of top bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, an Eastern Rite Catholic church whose clerics are in Rome to elect a new patriarch.

Leo said they were signs of hope “in a world marked by senseless and inhuman violence,” especially in the lands of early Christianity that have been “desecrated -- AP

President Donald Trump said on Friday (April 10) that Iran has “no cards” in upcoming talks with the United States -- apart from Tehran’s effective stranglehold on the crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping channel.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social network.- AFP

Lebanon’s President Joseph ‌Aoun said on Friday ⁠that 13 state security ‌personnel were ‌killed ‌in an ⁠Israeli strike ⁠on a governmental building in ‌the southern city of Nabatieh.

In a ‌statement, Mr. Aoun condemned continued ⁠Israeli attacks and said ‌targeting state institutions would not deter ‌Lebanon from defending its sovereignty.- Reuters

Iran’s Parliament speaker on Friday (April 10) set a ceasefire in Lebanon and the “release of Iran’s blocked assets” as pre-conditions for the start of negotiations with the United States.

“Two of the measures mutually agreed upon between the parties have yet to be implemented: a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of Iran’s blocked assets prior to the commencement of negotiations,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X in English.

“These two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.” - AFP

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday (April 10) called on the Lebanese government to stop giving “free concessions” to Israel, with the two governments due to begin negotiations in Washington next week.

“We will not accept a return to the previous situation, and we call on officials to stop offering free concessions,” Mr. Qassem said in a written message broadcast on the party’s Al-Manar TV, in which he also denounced the “bloody criminality on Wednesday,” when Israeli strikes killed more than 300 people in Lebanon.- AFP

Two days after Israel’s worst bombardment in its war with ‌Lebanon killed more than 300 people, MEA said on Friday (April 10, 2026) that govt is “deeply concerned” by reports of civilian casualties in ‌Lebanon.

Israel invaded Lebanon ‌last month in ‌pursuit ⁠of Hezbollah after the ⁠group fired into Israel in support of Iran, as the U.S.-Israel war on ‌Iran raged.

“India has always emphasized the protection of civilians as the foremost priority. ‌Observing international law, and respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity of states ⁠is essential,” MEA said in a statement. - Reuters

Hezbollah said on Friday (April 10) it had targeted Israel’s Ashdod naval base with missiles, two days after deadly Israeli airstrikes on Beirut left more than 300 people dead.

“In response to the enemy’s violation of the ceasefire and its repeated attacks on Beirut, and after the Resistance adhered to the ceasefire while the enemy did not, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted... the naval base in the port of Ashdod with missiles,” the group said in a statement. - AFP

In the Ain al-Mraisseh neighbourhood along Beirut’s coastal corniche, where an Israeli strike on Thursday (April 9, 2026) wiped out the bottom floors of a multi-storey building, causing a partial collapse, stunned residents tried to salvage whatever furniture and personal mementoes they could find in the rubble.

Although now homeless, some men at the scene expressed gratitude that they lost only their apartments, not their loved ones. The strikes killed more than 300 people and wounded over 1,800, authorities said.

“There is no substitute for family,” said Wissam Tabila, 35. “Everything else can be replaced. The house and other things can be replaced, but parents, children, or a wife, this is the most important.” -- AP

The Strait of Hormuz remained shut on Friday (April 10, 2026) and Israel traded fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the United States and Iran each described as violations of their ceasefire deal on the eve of their first peace talks of the war.

The two-day-old ceasefire has halted the ‌campaign of U.S. and Israeli air strikes on Iran. But it has so far done nothing to end the blockade of the strait, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or to calm a parallel war waged by Israel against Iran’s Hezbollah allies ⁠in Lebanon.

Iran was doing a “very poor job” of allowing oil to go through the strait, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post overnight. “That is not the agreement we have!”

In a separate post, he said oil would start flowing again, without saying how. -- Reuters

A former Iranian Foreign Minister who once suggested Tehran could seek a nuclear weapon died late on Thursday (April 9, 2026) after being injured in an airstrike last week, Iranian state television reported.

Kamal Kharazi had served as a Foreign Minister for Iran’s reformist President Mohammad Khatami, then as a foreign affairs adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In 2022, he told news network Al Jazeera that Tehran has “the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb, but there has been no decision by Iran to build one,” sparking concern about Tehran’s intentions. -- AP

The World ‌Health Organization said on Friday (April 10, 2026) ⁠it has received assurances that ‌two hospitals in ‌Beirut, Lebanon, ‌featured ⁠in ⁠an Israeli evacuation order will not be ‌targeted.

The estimated 450 patients inside the ‌Rafik Hariri University Hospital and Al ⁠Zahraa hospital in Beirut ‌have not been evacuated because it was not ‌feasible, said Dr Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO’s ⁠Representative in ⁠Lebanon. -- Reuters

French energy giant TotalEnergies said on Friday (April 10, 2026) it had shut down a major refinery on the eastern Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia after it was damaged during the West Asia conflict.

The Saudi Energy Ministry had announced on Thursday (April 9, 2026) “multiple attacks” recently on its oil and gas sites, including the SATORP refinery, a joint venture owned by TotalEnergies and the Saudi state-owned Aramco group. No details on production impacts were disclosed. -- AFP

Spain’s Foreign Minister said on Friday (April 10, 2026) that he had spoken with his Iranian counterpart and urged him to negotiate in good faith during talks with the United States in Islamabad.

“I encourage Iran ù this is what I conveyed to the Iranian Foreign Minister — to take part in those negotiations and to participate in good faith,” Jose Manuel Albares told the press, adding that he had spoken with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, “the day before yesterday” and had also asked him to halt “all missile and drone launches”. -- AFP

Dubai has restricted foreign airlines to just one daily flight to its airports until May 31 due to the Iran ‌crisis, igniting revenue loss fears among Indian carriers that had planned more flights than airlines from any other country, letters show. 

The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), which represents ⁠top carriers IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet, has asked India to push Dubai authorities to lift the curbs and, failing that, to consider reciprocal measures on Dubai carriers including Emirates and flydubai, according to a letter it sent to the ‌Indian government on March 31. 

Indian carriers are already under financial pressure from higher fuel prices and longer routings to Western destinations because they have been banned from using ‌Pakistani airspace since last year following military tensions between the two neighbours. 

In a private email to ‌airlines ⁠on March 27, seen by Reuters, Dubai Airports said carriers would be allowed ⁠one round trip per day to Dubai International Airport (DXB), normally the world’s busiest international travel hub, and the smaller Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) during the summer season between April 20 and May 31, extending restrictions implemented after the war began. -- Reuters

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukrainian military experts downed Iranian drones in several West Asia countries.

Kyiv dispatched dozens of anti-drone personnel to at least four countries in the West Asia after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran sparked a wave of retaliatory drone attacks.

“We demonstrated to some countries how to work with interceptors. Did we destroy them? Yes, we did. Did we do it in just one country? No, in several,” Mr. Zelenskyy told journalists, including AFP reporters, in comments released under embargo on Friday (April 10, 2026).

“This was not about a training mission or exercises, but about support in building a modern air defence system that can actually work. Yes, they were shooting down Shaheds,” he said, referring to the Iranian drones.

Mr. Zelenskyy had said earlier this week that the Ukrainian drone units would remain in the region even after the United States and Iran agreed a two-week ceasefire.

“In return for our support and expertise, we will receive various things. In some cases, it involves interceptors to protect our energy infrastructure; in others, there are financial arrangements,” he said, adding Ukraine could also receive oil supplies. -- AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he wants energy sanctions to be reinstated on Russia following a U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement that has opened the Strait of Hormuz waterway, vital to global energy supplies.

“Now a ceasefire is beginning in the Middle East and the Gulf. And I am waiting for sanctions on Russian oil to be fully reimposed, as they were before,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in comments released under embargo to journalists, including from AFP, on Friday (April 10, 2026). -- AFP

Kuwait accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting it on Thursday (April 9, 2026) despite the ceasefire.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard denied launching attacks on Persian Gulf states after Kuwait’s announcement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a potential boost to ceasefire efforts in the region when he said he had approved direct talks with Lebanon. The Lebanese government has not responded as of Friday morning.

The announcement came after Israel’s pounding of Beirut Wednesday killed more than 300 people. The negotiations are expected next week in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter. -- AP

U.S. President Donald Trump also warned Iran against imposing a toll for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait -- They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!” Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

In a second message just a few minutes later, Mr. Trump added that “very quickly, you’ll see Oil start flowing, with or without the help of Iran.” -- AFP

U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran of doing a “very poor job” of allowing oil through the Strait of Hormuz and of breaching the terms of their fragile two-week ceasefire agreement.

“Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “That is not the agreement we have!” -- AFP

President Donald Trump is tasking the member of his inner circle who has seemed to be the most reluctant defender of the conflict with Iran to now find a resolution to the war that began six weeks ago and stave off the U.S. President’s astonishing threat to wipe out its “whole civilization.” 

Vice President J.D. Vance, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, sets off Friday to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

It comes as a tenuous, temporary ceasefire appears to be on the precipice of collapsing. The chasm between Iran’s public demands and those from the US and its partner Israel seem irreconcilable. And in the U.S., where Mr. Vance might ask voters in two years’ time to make him the next president, there is growing political and economic pressure to wrap it up.

Mr. Vance is joined by Mr. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who took part in three rounds of indirect talks with Iranian negotiators aimed at settling U.S. concerns about Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic weapons programs and its support for armed proxy groups in West Asia before Mr. Trump and Israel launched the Feb. 28 war against Iran.

The White House has provided scant detail about the format of the talks — whether they will be direct or indirect — and has not provided specific expectations for the meeting. -- AP

Uncertainty shrouded the U.S.-Iran dialogue, as there was no official word about the arrival of delegates on Friday (April 10, 2026), the day set for the start of talks between the two warring sides, even as Pakistan waived visa requirements for journalists and officials attending talks. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while announcing a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday (April 8), had stated that the two countries would hold talks in Islamabad on April 10. He had tagged Presidents of the United States and Iran and other officials in his statement on X.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amir Moghadam in a statement confirmed that a 10-member Iran delegation would arrive in Islamabad.

“Despite skepticism of Iranian public opinion due to repeated ceasefire violations by the Israeli regime to sabotage the diplomatic initiative, invited by Hon PM Shehbaz Sharif, Iranian delegation arrives tonight in Islamabad for serious talks based on 10 points proposed by Iran,” he said on X on Thursday (April 9).

Hours later, he deleted the statement amidst the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, which was subjected to aerial attacks by Israel, calling it a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

Iran’s President also, in a tweet, cast doubts over the process of talks if Israel continued its policy of attacks on Lebanon.

Officials have not provided any timeline for the arrival of delegates due to security reasons, adding to the mystery as the day of the dialogue has arrived, but not the parties involved in the conflict. Despite uncertainty, Pakistan was geared up to host the two sides. -- PTI

Japan said it will release an additional 20 days’ worth of oil reserves in May, in a second round address supply uncertainty over the war in West Asia.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the planned release of the government reserves will start in early May, after an earlier release last month.

Japan started releasing about 50 days’ worth of oil reserves, including from those held by the state, the private sector and oil-producing Gulf nations.

As of April 6, Japan had 230 days’ worth oil reserves, including 143 days’ worth in government stockpiles, according to the Natural Resources and Energy Agency.

Ms. Takaichi said her government is working to secure oil imports via routes that do not include the Strait of Hormuz, while Japan seeks to diversify suppliers.

Pakistan said on Friday (April 10, 2026) it would issue visas on arrival for those traveling to Islamabad for the Iran-U.S. talks, signaling the interest in the world’s media in the event. -- AP

Air raid alerts rang out across Israel early Friday, including in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv and in the southern coastal city of Ashdod following rocket fire from Lebanon.

Continued fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah is testing a fragile truce reached between the United States and Iran.

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire repeatedly on Thursday.

-AFP

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday angrily lashed out at multiple well-known conservative commentators who have criticized his war against Iran, slamming his onetime allies as attention-seeking “NUT JOBS.”

“They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too!” Trump wrote in a nearly 500-word social media diatribe.

In the President’s crosshairs were Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly -- two former Fox News hosts turned independent podcasters -- as well as Candace Owens and Alex Jones, also podcasters and prominent conspiracy theorists.

All four have vocally criticized Mr. Trump over the war, slamming him for abandoning his anti-war campaign promises and -- to varying degrees -- accusing him of bowing to pressure from Israel to launch the conflict. 

-AFP

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in a statement carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency denied launching attacks on Persian Gulf states on Thursday after Kuwait’s announcement. 

“If these reports published by the media are true, without a doubt it is the work of the Zionist enemy or America,” the Revolutionary Guard said. 

However, the Guard also launched repeated attacks on civilian targets in the war and could also be using Shiite militias in Iraq to launch assaults, providing deniability for Iran ahead of the talks. 

-AP

Underlining Iran’s continued control of the Strait of Hormuz, a Botswana-flagged liquified natural gas tanker called the Nidi attempted to travel out of the Persian Gulf via a route ordered by the Revolutionary Guard but suddenly turned around and headed back early Friday, ship-tracking data showed. 

On Thursday, four tankers and three bulk carriers crossed through the Strait of Hormuz, bringing the total number of ships passing through since the ceasefire to at least 12, according to the data firm Kpler. 

However, other ships not transmitting their locations may have passed through as well. The strait typically saw well over 100 ships passing through it daily in peacetime.

-AP

Kuwait has accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting it on Thursday despite the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, as Saudi Arabia said recent attacks damaged a key pipeline in the kingdom.

The statement from Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry, carried by the state-run KUNA news agency, put new pressure on the ceasefire ahead of planned talks on Saturday between the United States and Iran in Islamabad.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said the drone attacks “targeted some vital Kuwaiti facilities” Thursday night. 

-AP