Iran Suspends Indirect Talks With U.S., Instructs Houthis to Act in Bab el-Mandeb Strait Amid Lebanon Fighting

An Iranian news outlet linked to the Revolutionary Guard Corps announced Monday that Iran was suspending indirect talks with the United States and opening other fronts in the war, including the Bab el-Mandeb strait. The Tasnim news agency said the decisions were intended to punish Israel and its supporters for operations in Lebanon.

Iran also announced it had instructed its Houthi allies in Yemen to attack the strait.

President Trump stated on Truth Social on Monday that Iran really wants to make a deal. He urged critics to sit back and relax, saying it will all work out well in the end. -Iran ceasefire that began on April 8 was unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon.

U.S. m. U.S. Central Command. U.S. service members and three contractors suffered minor injuries from an Iranian ballistic missile strike on a Kuwaiti air base last week.

U.S. official said.

U.S. Navy cleared about a month ago. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that in the past 24 hours, 15 vessels, four of them oil tankers, had transited the strait under its supervision. The IRGC said any vessels transiting the channel in cooperation with hostile extra-regional forces will be seen as an imminent security threat and will be dealt with accordingly.

Iran has been levying tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported.

The Panama-flagged container ship MSC Sariska V sustained a large hole in its side above the waterline. UKMTO said a cargo ship 40 nautical miles southeast of Umm Qasr, Iraq, had a large explosion following a hit from an unknown projectile on the starboard side. There have been 44 confirmed incidents in the Middle East maritime region since the conflict in Iran began.

At least 3,433 people have been killed and 10,395 wounded in Lebanon since the war between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, the Lebanese health ministry said. Israeli forces seized Beaufort castle on Sunday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes on the Lebanese capital on Monday targeting what he called Hezbollah's terror headquarters.

The Israel Defense Forces issued an evacuation warning on Monday to residents of the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Twenty-six Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting with Hezbollah, the IDF said. 47.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged from its all-time high set on Friday. m. Eastern time. 7 percent.

The Russell 2000 index sank 1 percent. Iran executed two men, Mehrdad Mohammadinia and Ashkan Maleki, on Monday morning, Mizan News reported. The two were arrested during anti-regime protests in January 2025 and convicted on charges including arson, destruction of public property, and disrupting public order.

U.S. and Israel.

Security Council was to hold an emergency session on Monday on the Israel-Hezbollah war. Israel and Hezbollah signed a ceasefire in mid-April. In peacetime, around 14 percent of global maritime trade passes through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, according to the International Transport Forum, while about 20 percent of the world's crude oil would typically transit the Strait of Hormuz.