Middle East Crisis

Strait of Hormuz
Iran threatens ships sailing through Hormuz without permission

Iran's Revolutionary Guard warns all ships against attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without permission, writes AFP. Ships using any other route through the strait than the one Iran has approved will face reprisals, the country threatens.

AFP writes that the statement appears to refer to the route that Oman, which like Iran has a coast on the strait, temporarily opened overnight.

Iran has said that the country does not intend to impose tariffs, but rather "service fees" for ships passing through Hormuz. The United States has opposed this on the grounds that the strait is international waters. According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the United States does not accept that any fee is charged.

- You can call it tariffs, you can call it fees. In the end, it is about semantics, he says.

Israel-Hezbollah
Israel denies US report of retreat in Lebanon

Both Israel and Lebanon deny US reports that Israeli forces have withdrawn from areas in southern Lebanon, writes Haaretz. The US claimed that the forces were withdrawn in a gesture of “goodwill” towards the Lebanese government.

“I don’t know anything about this. We haven’t moved at all,” an Israeli military source told the newspaper.

A Lebanese source says that developments on the ground suggest “the opposite of a withdrawal.”