- WASHINGTON (AP) — Soaring gas prices are expected to produce a spike in inflation when the government reports consumer prices for March on Friday, likely unnerving the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve and heightening the political challenges of rising costs for the White House. Inflation probably rose to 3.4% in March compared with a […]
- WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s search for an off-ramp from the war with Iran is getting bumpy inside his Republican Party. In the decade since Trump’s “America First” movement rose to power by rejecting military intervention, his coalition has rarely been tested the way it is now. Trump’s exit efforts — first through threats […]
- Donald Trump is accustomed to criticism from coast to coast — Democrats, disaffected Republicans, late-night comedians, massive protests. Yet in his second presidency, Trump’s most influential American critic doesn’t live in the country but at the Vatican. It’s an unprecedented situation, with the first American pope directly assailing the American president over the war in […]
- WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.” […]
- NEW YORK (AP) — An immigration appeals board has denied Mahmoud Khalil’s latest bid to dismiss his deportation case, a largely expected ruling that brings the former Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist one step closer to re-arrest and possible expulsion. The Board of Immigration Appeals issued the final order of removal on Thursday, […]
- US and Iran prepare for ceasefire talks as Netanyahu authorizes negotiations with Lebanon
on April 10, 2026 at 6:18 amDUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Negotiators from Iran and the United States prepared Friday for high-level talks planned to start a day later in Islamabad, seeking to steady a ceasefire teetering over Israel and Hezbollah exchanging fire and Tehran’s chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Vice President JD Vance was set to take off from Washington, with Iran still remaining mum over its team as it tried to pressure Washington to halt Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, claimed that talks would “remain suspended” otherwise. Meanwhile, Kuwait said it faced a drone attack Thursday night that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies in the region. Though Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard denied launching any assault, it has in the past carried out attacks across the Mideast it did not claim. In addition to talks in Iran, Israel-Lebanon negotiations are also expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington — a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts — according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the matter. This came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he has authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors. Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Netanyahu later stressed that there was no ceasefire between them. Israel’s announcement of negotiations with Lebanon comes amid disagreement over whether the ceasefire deal included a pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and a day after Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began Feb. 28. The talks in Washington are expected to be handled on the American side by the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, and on the Israeli side by the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, according to the person familiar with the planning. The Lebanese government had not responded as of Friday morning, and it was not immediately clear who would represent Lebanon. The timing and location of the talks was first reported by Axios. After declaring victory with the ceasefire announcement, both Iran and the U.S. have appeared to apply pressure on each other. Semiofficial news agencies in Iran suggested forces have mined the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil that Tehran has closed. Trump warned that U.S. forces would hit Iran harder than before if it did not fulfill the agreement. Late Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the ceasefire, writing on his social media platform: “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz.” “That is not the agreement we have!” Trump wrote of the trickle of ships Iran has allowed to pass through the crucial waterway. Underlining Iran’s continued control of the strait, a Botswana-flagged liquefied natural gas tanker 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. Saudi Arabia said recent attacks have damaged a key pipeline in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s state-run Saudi Press Agency, quoting an anonymous official, said its crucial East-West pipeline, which carries oil out to the Red Sea and avoids the Strait of Hormuz, was damaged in the recent attacks. Questions also remained over what will happen to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium at the heart of tensions, how and when normal traffic will resume through the strait, and what happens to Iran’s ability to launch future missile attacks and support armed proxies in the region. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned in a social media post Thursday that continued Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon would bring “explicit costs and STRONG responses.” Qalibaf has been discussed as a possible negotiator who could meet Vance in Islamabad. The White House has said Vance would lead the delegation for talks starting Saturday. Trump said Thursday that he has asked Netanyahu to dial back the strikes in Lebanon. Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 300 people were killed and more than 1,100 wounded Wednesday by Israeli strikes on central Beirut and other areas of Lebanon that Israel said targeted Hezbollah, which joined the war in support of Tehran. Early Friday morning, Israel’s military said it struck approximately 10 launchers in Lebanon that had fired rockets toward northern Israel on Thursday. Four tankers and three bulk carriers crossed through the strait Thursday, bringing the total number of ships passing through since the ceasefire to at least 12, according to the data firm Kpler. Semiofficial news agencies in Iran published a chart Thursday suggesting the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war — a message that may be intended to pressure the U.S. The chart, released by the ISNA news agency and Tasnim, showed a large circle marked “danger zone” in Farsi over the route ships take through the strait, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas once passed. The head of the United Arab Emirates’ major oil company, Sultan al-Jaber, said some 230 ships loaded with oil were waiting to get through the strait and must be allowed “to navigate this corridor without condition.” The strait’s de facto closure has caused oil prices to skyrocket — affecting the cost of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East. The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $96 Friday, up about 35% since the war began. ___ Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong, Zeke Miller, Matthew Lee and Will Weissert in Washington, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Kareem Chehayeb and Hussein Malla in Beirut contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- The Latest: Kuwait blames Iran for drone strikes as Trump casts doubt on ceasefire
on April 10, 2026 at 5:18 amU.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the two-week ceasefire over Iran’s continued chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz, while Kuwait accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting it on Thursday 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. Questions remained over what will happen to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium at the heart of tensions, how and when normal traffic will resume through the Strait of Hormuz, and what happens to Iran’s ability to launch future missile attacks and support armed proxies in the region. Talks between the United States and Iran on a resolution to the conflict are expected to start Saturday in Islamabad, with the White House saying Vice President JD Vance would lead the U.S. delegation. Here is the latest: Ukrainian military personnel shot down Iranian-designed Shahed drones in multiple Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, describing the operations as part of a broader effort to help partners counter the same weapons used by Russia in Ukraine. Zelenskyy made his first public acknowledgment of the operations Wednesday in remarks to reporters that were embargoed until Friday. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces took part in active operations abroad using domestically produced, battle-tested interceptor drones. Asian stocks were mostly up Friday while oil prices also rose on the fragile Iran war ceasefire and ahead of Iran-U.S. negotiations in Pakistan over the weekend. South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.5% to 5,862.58. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 1.9% to 56,952.60. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.8% to 25,954.15, while the Shanghai Composite index was also 0.8% higher at 3,996.34. Brent crude, the international standard, was 1% higher at $96.92 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude was up 0.8% to $98.62 a barrel. For oil prices, “$65-70 a barrel is not coming back,” Ajay Rajadhyaksha of Barclays wrote in a recent research note, referring to the pre-Iran war oil price levels. The bank predicts that Brent crude could remain at around $85 per barrel on average for this year. “A ceasefire is not a refund,” he wrote. “Ceasefires end wars; they don’t undo them.” Pakistan’s capital fell unusually quiet Friday as authorities locked down Islamabad ahead of high-stakes talks between the United States and Iran aimed at securing a lasting ceasefire after weeks of war. Roads lay nearly empty, checkpoints were set up at major arteries, and a two-day public holiday kept residents indoors. Behind the calm, diplomatic activity intensified. U.S. Vice President JD Vance is set to leave for Pakistan Friday, while an Iranian delegation was also expected there. Security was tightened, with additional troops and police deployed across Islamabad. Talks are set to begin Saturday, drawing global attention and placing Islamabad at the center of efforts to bring an end to the war. Multiple times overnight into Friday morning, people around Iran’s capital, Tehran, and other parts of the country said they heard what sounded like air defense fire and explosions. However, Iran’s government did not acknowledge any attack during that period. After past exchanges of fire with Israel, similar incidents happened as troops remained on edge. 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 the Middle East. 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 in March, 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. 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 Friday 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. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Trump’s tenuous Iran exit plan isn’t healing Republican rifts exposed by the war
on April 10, 2026 at 4:18 amWASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s search for an off-ramp from the war with Iran is getting bumpy inside his Republican Party. In the decade since Trump’s “America First” movement rose to power by rejecting military intervention, his coalition has rarely been tested the way it is now. Trump’s exit efforts — first through threats of annihilation, then with a ceasefire that is proving precarious — are doing little to paper over tensions that have festered since the war began six weeks ago. Laura Loomer, a conservative activist close to the president and often one of his top boosters, rejected the notion of brokering a deal with Iran. In an interview, she knocked Vice President JD Vance for being “in charge” of talks expected to start Saturday in Pakistan, as he takes on a larger diplomatic role ahead of a potential 2028 White House run. “I support President Trump,” Loomer said in an interview. “I just don’t believe in negotiating with Islamic terrorists.” Vance’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a Trump supporter-turned-critic, called for the president to be removed from office through the Constitution’s 25th Amendment after he said earlier this week that a “whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran made a deal. Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News anchor who now hosts a podcast, unloaded on Trump with a profane critique and asked, “Can’t he just behave like a normal human?” During a recent taping of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” the host wondered what would end first, their episode or the ceasefire deal. Despite the growing criticism, Republican leaders in Congress were largely silent. Many were privately uncomfortable with Trump’s threats on social media and were concerned about how the war would play out, especially in an election year. But with Congress on recess for the opening two weeks of April, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., have offered little public reaction to Trump’s moves. Some said the developments were simply unfolding too quickly. “How do you go up and give a presentation or speech in a situation where every 12 hours, the baseline story has a new gradient?” Rep. Dave Schweikert, an Arizona Republican who is running for governor, said in an interview. “In many ways, it is the sin of arrogance thinking you can go out and talk about something when the story is still unfolding.” That leaves Republicans in an uncertain position, much like the state of the war. The party already faces fierce headwinds ahead of the November midterms, and some say its best bet is for voters to forget about Iran by then. “My hope is that it will be long behind us by the time votes are cast,” said Chris Wilson, a veteran Republican strategist. “Fortunately for the GOP, foreign policy flare-ups rarely decide midterm elections on their own, especially when voters are far more focused on the economy and prices at home.” For now, Trump and his White House are expressing confidence. Trump hailed a “big day for World Peace” after the ceasefire was first announced. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt heralded a “victory for the United States of America that the president and our incredible military made happen.” In a social media post, Trump dismissed his detractors, including podcasters such as Kelly, as “stupid people” who will “say anything necessary for some ‘free’ and cheap publicity.” Some of the president’s supporters in Congress are pushing back at the suggestion that Trump has become too entangled overseas at the expense of domestic priorities. “Part of America First is making sure that the homeland stays safe and Iran is a factor in our safety,” Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., said in an interview. “We are all hopeful that the ceasefire does hold and that Iran lives up to their side of the agreement. Any president’s party typically loses seats in Congress during a midterm election year and races this week offered a fresh reason for concern for Republicans. Republican Clay Fuller won Greene’s district by about 12 percentage points. She had a 29-percentage-point win two years earlier, and Trump carried the district by almost 37 percentage points. In Wisconsin, the liberal majority on the state Supreme Court grew this week when a Democratic-backed candidate won by a double-digit margin. That follows strong performances for Democrats in other recent races, including the Florida state legislative district that is home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approved of how Trump was handling his job as president, according to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling last month. That share is largely unchanged since he returned to office in January 2025. But it is also roughly where Trump was at this point in his first term, when Democrats went on to gain 40 House seats in the 2018 midterms. While Trump still has deep support from Republicans, there are signs that he risks frustrating his supporters if the U.S. becomes involved in a prolonged war. Although 63% of Republicans back airstrikes against Iranian military targets, the March survey found, only 20% back deploying American ground troops. Rising gas prices could pose a problem, with about 6 in 10 Republicans saying they are at least “somewhat” concerned about affording gas in the next few months, though they are less worried than the rest of the country. Republicans who have spent time with voters over the recess say they believe the party has political breathing room to navigate the war. Kustoff said constituents across his rural northwestern Tennessee district seemed “generally supportive” of Trump’s actions in Iran, even when they have been accompanied by higher prices at the pump. “My takeaway is that people are willing to endure some short-term pain as it relates to gas prices if the situation with Iran is resolved,” he said. But as they return to Washington next week, Republicans face a series of difficult choices. At the outset of the war, some GOP lawmakers said Trump would need to seek approval from Congress if the conflict lasted longer than 60 days, a deadline that would approach near the end of April if the ceasefire did not hold. The administration is seeking billions of dollars in additional spending for the war, setting up a vote that could put budget-conscious Republicans in a difficult spot before the fall campaigns. Democrats are also moving to force another vote on a war powers resolution that would curb Trump’s options in Iran. A similar effort failed last month, but another vote could add pressure on Republicans, depending on how the ceasefire plays out. Schweikert described the war powers vote as the “dance of parties.” “Their job is to try to embarrass us and our job as the majority is to try to make things work,” he said. “It’s just the job.” ___ Peoples reported from New York and Kinnard from Columbia, S.C. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- A president and a pope: The world’s most influential Americans are at odds over Iran
on April 10, 2026 at 4:18 amDonald Trump is accustomed to criticism from coast to coast — Democrats, disaffected Republicans, late-night comedians, massive protests. Yet in his second presidency, Trump’s most influential American critic doesn’t live in the country but at the Vatican. It’s an unprecedented situation, with the first American pope directly assailing the American president over the war in Iran, where a fragile ceasefire took hold this week. The announcement came after Pope Leo XIV declared that Trump’s belligerence was “truly unacceptable.” Never before has the relationship between Washington and the Vatican revolved around two Americans — specifically, a 79-year-old politician from Queens and a 70-year-old pontiff from Chicago. They come from the same generation and share some common cultural roots yet bring jarringly distinct approaches to their positions of vast power. And the relationship comes with risks for both sides. “They’re two white guy boomers but they could not be any more different in their life experiences, in their values, in the way they have chosen to live those values,” said theology professor Natalia Imperatori-Lee of Fordham University. “This is a very stark contrast, and I think an inflection point for American Christianity.” Experts on the Catholic Church emphasized that Leo’s opposition to the war reflects established church teachings, not the reflexive politics of the moment. “For the last five centuries, the church has been involved in a project of helping develop strong international norms,” including the Geneva Conventions in recent centuries, said Catholic University professor William Barbieri. “It is a very long-standing tradition rooted in Scripture and theology and philosophy.” Yet the U.S. administration, which has close ties to conservative evangelical Protestant leaders, has claimed heavenly endorsement for Trump’s war on Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Americans to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ.” When Trump was asked whether he thought God approved of the war, he said, “I do, because God is good — because God is good and God wants to see people taken care of.” The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of iconic Baptist evangelist Billy Graham, said of Trump that God “raised him up for such a time as this.” And Graham prayed for victory so Iranians can “be set free from these Islamic lunatics.” Leo countered in his Palm Sunday message that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” He referenced an Old Testament passage from Isaiah, saying that “even though you make many prayers, I will not listen — your hands are full of blood.” While it’s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it’s exceedingly rare for the leader of the Catholic Church to directly criticize a U.S. leader, and Leo later named Trump directly and expressed optimism that the president would seek “an off-ramp” in Iran. An even stronger condemnation came after Trump warned of mass strikes against Iranian power plants and infrastructure, writing on social media that “an entire civilization will die tonight.” Leo described that as a “threat against the entire people of Iran” and said it was “truly unacceptable.” Imperatori-Lee said Leo’s direct criticism stands out from the church’s more general critiques of political and social systems. For example, Pope Francis urged U.S. bishops to defend migrants without specifically mentioning Trump or his deportation agenda. Leo also previously called for humane treatment of migrants. “Popes have critiqued unfettered capitalism before, very robustly. The popes have critiqued the Industrial Revolution, right? Things that the U.S. has been at the forefront of,” Imperatori-Lee said, “but it’s never been this specific and localized.” She said Leo’s commentary resonates in the U.S. — with Catholics and non-Catholics — because he is a native English speaker. “There’s no question about his inflection and meaning,” she said. “It removes any ambiguities.” Trump welcomed Leo’s election last May as a “great honor” for the country, and he hasn’t responded to the latest criticisms. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. “What Pope Leo and Donald Trump have in common is they both lived through the post-war polarization,” including the political upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War, said Steven Millies, a professor at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union, one of the pope’s alma maters. He noted that Leo is a subscriber to The New York Times, plays the “Wordle” game, keeps up with U.S. sports and talks regularly with his brothers, including an avowed Trump supporter. “In some ways he’s just like us,” Millies said, someone “who understands where our domestic political crisis came from,” unlike the Argentinian Francis, “who did not fully understand the peculiarities of the United States” even as he offered implicit criticism. Barbieri said Leo’s American savvy still does not change an underappreciated reality of Catholicism and the papacy. “The Catholic Church doesn’t neatly fit into either right or left boxes as they’re understood in U.S. politics,” he said. Leo spent much of his pre-papal ministry, including all his time as a bishop and cardinal, outside the U.S. He was educated in Rome as a canon lawyer within the church. He was a bishop in poor, rural swaths of Peru. He led the Augustinian order and served as Francis’ prefect for recommending bishop appointees around the world. Imperatori-Lee said that global reach gave him a first-hand perspective on how Washington’s economic and military policies — including backing dictators in Latin America — have negatively affected less powerful nations and their citizens. His varied experiences made then-Cardinal Robert Prevost uniquely suited to be elected pope despite the College of Cardinals’ traditional skepticism toward the U.S. and its superpower status. Millies argued that Trump and his advisers, even Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, may not appreciate those distinctions. “This is an administration that seems to think only in terms of transactional politics — who’s for us and who’s against us,” he said. Relations between Washington and the Vatican have become so strained that a report of an allegedly contentious meeting involving Pentagon and Catholic Church officials sent shockwaves through both cities. According to the report in The Free Press, a member of Trump’s administration warned the church in January not to stand in the way of U.S. military might. The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See rejected the report, writing on social media that “deliberate misrepresentation of these routine meetings sows unfounded division and misunderstanding.” Millies, meanwhile, questioned whether anything the pope or U.S. bishops say can sway individual Catholics. Trump is likely to lose support among Catholics as he loses support across the broader electorate, Millies said, but that’s not necessarily because members of Leo’s flock are applying church doctrine. “Partisan preferences always trump the religious commitments,” Millies said, describing a “disconnect” between church leaders and many parishioners who look to other sources, politicians included, when shaping their views of faith and politics. “The icon of Catholicism in American politics now is JD Vance, and it’s more about winning an argument,” he said. “It’s a very different emphasis, but it’s one that may suit the Trump administration very well.” —- Associated Press reporters Nicole Winfield in Rome and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Vance sets off to Pakistan to lead talks with Iran as war’s ceasefire remains shaky
on April 10, 2026 at 4:18 amWASHINGTON (AP) — 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 JD 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 U.S. and its partner Israel seem irreconcilable. And in the U.S., where 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. Vance is joined by 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 the Middle East before 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. But the arrival of Vance for negotiations marks a rare moment of high-level U.S. government engagement with the Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the most direct contact had been when President Barack Obama in September 2013 called newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. Almost immediately after the White House and Iran announced a temporary ceasefire Tuesday evening, the sides found themselves at odds over terms of the truce. Iran insisted that an end to the Israeli war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon and the Israeli operations there continued. The U.S., meanwhile, demanded that Iran make good on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The Islamic Republic had closed the critical shipping waterway in response to Israel’s intensifying attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Trump on Thursday night said Iran was “doing a very poor job” of allowing oil tankers to pass through, writing on social media, “That is not the agreement we have!” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Vance, Witkoff, Kushner and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “have always been collaborating on these discussions” and said Trump was optimistic that a lasting deal can be reached during the two-week ceasefire. “President Trump has a proven track record of achieving good deals on behalf of the United States and the American people, and he will only accept one that puts America first,” Kelly said. It’s the highest-stakes moment thus far for Vance, who spent much of last year as more of a background player in the Trump White House, especially as others like Elon Musk and Rubio took turns as ever-present advisers for the president. But Vance’s portfolio is fattening fast, first with a mission to root out fraud in government programs at home and now to help solve a U.S. war in the Middle East, where complicated doesn’t even begin to describe things. Vance, who served in the Iraq War while in the Marines, spent two years as a U.S. senator and a little more than one as vice president, has little diplomatic experience. On Wednesday, he dismissed speculation that the Iranians requested that he join the talks, telling reporters: “I don’t know that. I would be surprised if that was true. But, you know, I wanted to be involved because I thought I could make a difference.” Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official who is now executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank, said Vance, with little experience on Iran policy, is an interesting choice to lead the delegation. Trump has noted his vice president was “less enthusiastic” than other top senior officials in the Republican administration, making Vance an intriguing interlocutor for the Iranian side, Schanzer said. “I think they probably prefer him knowing that his perspective on foreign intervention is one of skepticism,” Schanzer said of the Iranians. “I do think that he’s going to need some help. I don’t think he’s ever been engaged in negotiations with this kind of weight, this kind of seriousness. This is as serious as it gets.” The White House has not detailed who will be in the negotiations besides Vance, Witkoff and Kushner, but Kelly said officials from the National Security Council, State Department and Pentagon “will also play a supportive role.” During early rounds of indirect nuclear talks with the Iranians before the war, Democrats and some nuclear experts questioned whether Kushner and Witkoff had enough technical knowledge. The White House has not said whether the pair, whom Trump has entrusted with some of his most difficult negotiations since returning to office, had a nuclear expert with them for those talks. It’s not unusual for vice presidents to take on important negotiating roles for the president, said Joel Goldstein, a professor of law at Saint Louis University who is an expert on the history of the vice presidency. But, he said, “I don’t recall a situation where a vice president has been sent to negotiate a ceasefire or peace in connection with a war the United States was involved with.” Vance and Rubio are seen as the Republican Party’s strongest potential 2028 presidential contenders, though neither has given a clear answer about whether he intends to run. The vice president’s team is not thinking about the negotiations with an eye to future political considerations, according to a person familiar with discussions who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. As vice president, Vance inherently would carry any baggage of the administration if he eventually does run for president, Goldstein said. But stepping in to lead negotiations even further identifies him with the conflict. “The fact that he’s involved in the negotiations in a very visible way, that means that, if things go south, that people will be pointing fingers at him,” Goldstein said. At the same time, Goldstein said, “If things go well, then it will be something that he could point to.” Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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