Closing summary
We’re wrapping up this live coverage now but here is a report on the latest developments regarding US and Iran negotiations over a ceasefire. Below is a recap of the latest in the Middle East crisis. Thanks for reading.
The US President, Donald Trump, says he expects a response from Iran soon to US proposals for an interim deal to end the conflict in the Middle East. “I’m getting a letter supposedly tonight,” he told reporters at the White House on Friday night. Asked if Iran was intentionally slow-rolling the negotiation process, he replied: “We’ll find out soon enough.”
During a visit to Rome, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio said: “We’re expecting a response from [Iran] today at some point … I hope it’s a serious offer, I really do … The hope it’s something that can put us into a serious process of negotiation.”
Rubio also met with the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Miloni, in Rome on Friday at a moment of unusual strain between Trump and Italy, driven largely by the war against Iran. Rubio also met with Pope Leo for a meeting he described as “cordial and important”.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says the department is prepared to take financial actions against those providing weapons to Iran’s military. His comments came after the US Treasury announced sanctions against 10 individuals and companies, including many based in China and Hong Kong.
Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has called for renewed diplomacy on an agreement with Iran as he met with US vice-president JD Vance in Washington.
The US will hold two days of “intensive talks” between Israel and Lebanon on 14-15 May, to establish long-term border security, and reach a lasting peace agreement to prevent further conflict, the US state department has said.
Lebanese authorities reported that five people were killed by Israeli strikes, including on the town of Toura in the southern Tyre district, and wounded at least eight others.
In a post on X, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei warned against “adventurism and roguish behaviour” after reported US military attacks on Iranian vessels in the strait of Hormuz.
The US Central Command (Centcom) claims it has struck two “unladen” Iranian-flagged oil tankers it said were attempting to violate the US blockade by entering an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.
As the US and Iran continue to negotiate a fragile ceasefire, and fighting continues in the strait of Hormuz, life goes on in Tehran.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, met the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, in Rome on Friday at a moment of unusual strain between Trump and Italy, driven largely by the war with Iran.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, more than half of that country’s population now depends on humanitarian aid, according to the European Union, as Israel continues its attacks on the country despite a ceasefire in the two-month-long war with militant group Hezbollah.
