KABUL (Pajhwok): Iran and Oman are continuing discussions on shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, while at least 11 people have been killed and 19 others wounded in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, a media report said on Sunday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was continuing talks with Oman on establishing routes for ships to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera reported.
Araghchi said reopening the waterway was linked to the United States implementing an agreement reached between the two sides in June.
He said Iran had not yet decided whether to resume negotiations with the United States, adding that Qatar and Pakistan were in contact with Tehran to convey messages. However, he said the contacts did not mean Iran had decided to return to talks with Washington.
According to the report, Iran is separately working with Oman on technical arrangements to establish new shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran, however, has made the resumption of shipping through the waterway conditional on reaching a political solution.
Tensions over the strategic waterway have continued after US President Donald Trump recently claimed that the United States controlled the Strait of Hormuz and said he wanted to declare it “US territory”. Iran rejected the claim.
Meanwhile, at least 11 people were killed and 19 others wounded in Israeli airstrikes on several areas in southern Lebanon, according to the report.
Seven people, including three children, were killed and two others wounded in a strike on Ansar in Nabatieh province. In another strike in Deir al-Zahrani, four people were killed and 17 others wounded.
The report described the strikes as the deadliest Israeli attacks on Lebanon since a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in June.
The Israeli military said the strikes targeted facilities it claimed were linked to Hezbollah.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam rejected the justification, saying that any action against military facilities on Lebanese territory, if they existed, was the responsibility of the Lebanese government and army and did not give Israel the right to attack Lebanon.
Hezbollah warned that Israeli attacks would not go unanswered.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strikes, describing them as violations of existing agreements and international laws protecting civilians.
According to the report, although violence declined following the June agreement between the United States and Iran and a subsequent US-backed agreement between Lebanon and Israel, attacks and destruction have continued in southern Lebanon.
kk/sa
