By SAMY MAGDY and ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press
CAIRO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said new talks to wind down the war in Iran will start Monday, after announcing he is holding off on new massive strikes he had threatened to unleash on the country.
The talks will seek to end the conflict and revive stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.
But Trump has made a habit of threatening strikes on Iran only to call them off and dangle the prospect of a diplomatic end to the conflict. And Iran’s foreign ministry said it’s not currently holding negotiations with the United States. Meanwhile, divisions have emerged among Iranian leaders over their goals.
Elsewhere, Israel struck the Gaza Strip over the weekend, days after the U.S. and Hamas said a deal was reached for the militant group to disarm, a potential step toward ending the war in Gaza.
Hospitals in Gaza said at least 17 people were killed in the weekend strikes, including children. A strike on a residential apartment in southern Gaza killed three family members, including a 4-year-old child, according to Nasser hospital, where the bodies arrived.
The Israeli military said the strikes targeted militants.
Here is a look at the most important developments Monday in the Middle East.
Trump announces renewed talks
Trump said Sunday that he decided against carrying out major strikes against Iran at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He said a plan was in place for U.S. forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II,” but he decided to give diplomacy more time after hearing from key Gulf leaders, as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials.
“Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” he said. He did not provide further details or say who would be involved in the talks.
Trump has had a pattern of threatening massive strikes that he later calls off, with the announcements often later upended by renewed attacks. The abrupt shifts have been a defining feature of the five-month war that has upended global markets and sent the prices of fuel and other basic goods soaring.
Top Iranian officials head to Oman and Pakistan amid US blockade
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Tehran is not currently holding negotiations with the United States.
Esmail Baghaei, an agency spokesperson, said Monday that ongoing talks were with Oman, the country that lies on the other side of the strait, and were focused only on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the channel.
Nine vessels transited through the strait Sunday, most of them using an Iranian-controlled route, according to trade data and analytics platform Kpler.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived Monday in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf to participate in the Arbaeen commemorations, an annual pilgrimage for Shiite Muslims, his office said on social media.
Araghchi’s trip comes as Iraq has been walking a tightrope between Iran and the U.S., an act that has only grown more fraught since the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran in February.
And Iran’s trade minister headed Monday to Pakistan for an official visit expected to focus in part on ways to ease transit bottlenecks and move more Iranian containers through Pakistani ports during the U.S. naval blockade.
Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Atabak was scheduled to attend a meeting of the Iran-Pakistan Joint Trade Committee in Islamabad and to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during the two-day trip.
Syrian and Iraqi leaders discuss security concerns
Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Iraq’s Kurdish regional president met Monday to discuss ways of improving mutual cooperation and contributing to regional security.
The meeting between al-Sharaa and Nechirvan Barzani came amid regional tensions as Iranian-backed Iraqi militia groups carried out multiple drone strikes targeting American interests across Iraq, including the country’s Kurdish region.
Syrian state media reported last month that authorities at the country’s border with Iraq thwarted an attempt in June to smuggle weapons believed to have been headed to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Hezbollah denied the charges.
Iran executes 2 men it says spied for Israel
Iran’s judiciary said it executed two men Monday after convicting them of spying for Israel during both last year’s 12-day war and the ongoing conflict.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the two as Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat, who were accused of providing military coordinates, images and other intelligence used in attacks on Iranian targets. It did not specify where the executions took place.
Last week, Iran publicly hanged two men convicted of killing four police officers during nationwide anti-government protests in January.
Gaza’s residents swelter in tents
Soaring temperatures in Gaza this summer have turned the makeshift tents sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into suffocating ovens. Made of plastic sheets, the shelters trap heat during the day and offer little ventilation, forcing many families to spend hours outside.
The extreme weather compounds an already dire humanitarian crisis. With limited access to clean water, electricity and sanitation, overcrowded camps are grappling with flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Humanitarian agencies such as the Norwegian Refugee Council warn that the conditions heighten the risk of dehydration, heat-related illnesses and the spread of skin infections, diarrheal diseases and other communicable illnesses.
“It’s very hot. We can’t stay inside the tents. Our tent is made of nylon,” said Aida Abu Hadeesha, a woman displaced from the town of Rafah, near the border with Egypt. “There is no breeze, nothing, and our kids are suffering,” she said, adding that the stifling heat continued all night. “The flies and the cockroaches attack us.”
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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press reporters Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.