Oil prices surge after U.S.-Iran peace talks break down : NPR
The United States announced on Sunday that it would soon block ships arriving from Iranian ports. This comes after the United States and Iran failed to reach an agreement in face-to-face peace talks, sending oil prices soaring.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Peace talks between the United States and Iran ended without a deal on Sunday. In a few minutes, we will hear from a former US envoy to Iran about what could get diplomacy back on track.
TO MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
First, oil prices are hovering around a hundred dollars a barrel after the failure of U.S.-Iran peace talks and President Trump’s threats to block Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.
MARTIN: This is straining an already fragile ceasefire across the Middle East. Attacks continue unabated in one country, Lebanon. Israel continues to target Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters. Lebanese authorities say a Red Cross paramedic is among more than 100 people killed in a weekend of Israeli attacks.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR’s Lauren Frayer is in the capital Beirut. Lauren, there is a regional ceasefire, but while the United States and Israel insist that Lebanon is exempt, Israel has continued to attack that country.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: That’s right. Israeli airstrikes have hit southern Lebanon and border villages where Israel says it is seizing Lebanese territory to create what it calls a buffer zone where Hezbollah cannot fire cross-border rockets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually walked through this area yesterday, wore a bulletproof vest, stood on Lebanese soil and declared that the Lebanese would not be allowed to return home. As you know, more than a million people have been displaced by this Israeli invasion, mainly from this southern region.
Netanyahu’s defense minister was also present alongside him and said the goal was to do to Lebanon what Israel did to Gaza. He said they were destroying homes so Hezbollah couldn’t use them, and the Lebanese government says Israel has already destroyed around 40,000 homes in the past 35 days. As you mentioned, during the latest attacks, an ambulance team from the Lebanese Red Cross. The Red Cross says they were directly targeted by an Israeli drone, killing one rescue worker and injuring another. The Lebanese government says Israeli attacks have killed at least 87 doctors over the past six weeks. Human rights groups call it a war crime.
MARTÍNEZ: Negotiations are scheduled for tomorrow in Washington between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors. How do people perceive them?
FRAYER: They really are considered historic. I mean, these are the first direct government negotiations since 1983. A lot of people weren’t alive the last time these two governments had contact. Israel and Lebanon are sworn enemies. It is the Lebanese government that is leading these talks, but Hezbollah, which is the fighter and one of the main power players in Lebanon, does not support these talks. Hezbollah held a large rally here this weekend, filling several blocks of Beirut. However, not everyone supports Hezbollah. Some Lebanese blame the group for dragging them into yet another war. But in the midst of these constant Israeli attacks, at this rally I met people like this man, Khalil Harb(ph), who says he normally wouldn’t be part of Hezbollah’s Shiite Muslim base.
KHALIL HARB: I drink. I am not religious. I don’t pray. But I know the issues related to Israel, I am of course from Hezbollah.
FRAYER: People at the rally told me the real turning point came last week with this barrage of Israeli attacks on what locals call Black Wednesday, where more than 350 people were killed in a single day. Many in central Beirut, even along the city’s waterfront, and not in Hezbollah strongholds.
MARTÍNEZ: Today, Israel says one of its goals in these talks is to get Hezbollah to lay down its weapons and disarm. Now you have recently obtained a rare account within this group.
FRAYER: I did. I interviewed a Hezbollah veteran. He only gave his war name, Jihad, for fear that Israel would hunt him down and kill him, as is the case with many of his comrades. We spoke by phone, but not on his own device. He claims that Hezbollah has stopped using most electronic devices. He described the transmission of handwritten notes on the battlefield via motorcycle couriers. And he gave us this rare account of the group’s organizational chart. He says Iran now exercises much more direct control. He told me they never really disarmed after previous wars with Israel – they only gave up decoy weapons and hid their real arsenal underground. As you mentioned, the disarmament of Hezbollah is one of Israel’s demands in these talks in Washington.
MARTÍNEZ: This is NPR’s Lauren Frayer in Beirut. Laurent, thank you.
FRAYER: You’re welcome.
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