Keir Starmer urges Iran and US to ‘find a way through’: Live updates

Keir Starmer has urged both Iran and the US to ‘find a way through’ following failed talks in Pakistan, Downing Street said.

In a conversation with the Sultan of Oman, Starmer said a continuation of the ceasefire is ‘vital’ and that ‘all parties avoided any further escalation’.

It comes after UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that it is ‘disappointing’ that initial talks to end the war in Iran had broken down without a deal.

New photos show the chaos caused in southern Lebanon after fresh Israeli strikes amid the Iran-US ceasefire.

One image shows a woman attempting to clear debris from her porch after a strike in the southern Lebanese village of Al-Bazouriyah.

New photos show huge piles of debris and rising smoke in southern Lebanon today after Israeli strikes.

Israel stepped up its attacks on Lebanon following Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran.

Israel said it will observe the ceasefire with Iran, but insisted Lebanon was not included in the deal.

Finance officials from around the globe are set to meet in Washington this week amid the conflict in the Middle East.

The war has delivered a third major shock to the global economy after the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Top International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials last week warned that emerging markets and developing ⁠countries will be hit hardest by increasing energy prices and supply disruptions.

Iran has misplaced mines it laid in the Strait of Hormuz and is now unable to clear them, US officials warned last night.

The regime’s failure to locate the explosives – which it laid ‘haphazardly’ – may be to blame for the delay in Tehran opening the shipping lane to more vessels, sources added.

It leaves tankers and other commercial ships crossing the Strait, through which up to 25 per cent of the world’s oil passes, in danger of being blown up.

Pope Leo XIV expressed his closeness to the people of Lebanon on Sunday, saying there was a ‘moral obligation’ to protect them while calling on warring parties to seek peace.

‘I am closer than ever, in these days of sorrow, fear, and unconquerable hope in God, to the beloved Lebanese people,’ the pope told the crowd at St Peter’s Square following his Regina Coeli prayer, citing ‘a moral obligation to protect the civilian population from the atrocious effects of war.’

Though Israel’s strikes over Beirut have calmed in recent days, its attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified alongside a ground invasion it renewed after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in the opening days of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Leo wished Christians celebrating Orthodox Easter, and said he hoped especially that the international community doesn’t turn its back on the ‘beloved people of Ukraine.’

He noted that Wednesday marks the third anniversary of the ‘fratricidal war’ in Sudan, and appealed for talks to end what he called an ‘inhuman tragedy.’

Iran’s First Vice President Reza Aref said Tehran sought US recognition of its control of transit through the Strait of Hormuz in the collapsed Islamabad talks.

On social media, Aref said having ‘authority in the Strait of Hormuz’ and ‘pursuing compensation’ for the damage caused by the US and Israel’s strikes were ‘the rights of the (Iranian) people.’

‘This is our firm commitment to a strong Iran,’ he wrote.

Kuwait has arrested 24 people as part of an investigation into the ‘financing of terrorist entities’, authorities said late Saturday, without revealing who was involved.

A security source told AFP that five former Kuwaiti lawmakers were among those detained.

Since Iran began attacking Kuwait and other Gulf states last month as part of the Middle East war, authorities across the region have moved against individuals and organisations suspected of links to or supporting Tehran.

Kuwait’s interior ministry on Saturday did not mention any particular country or organisation but said it had ‘thwarted a plot targeting the undermining of the homeland’s security and the financing of terrorist entities and organisations.

‘The State Security Agency succeeded in apprehending 24 citizens, one of whom had his citizenship revoked, in possession of financial sums linked to illicit activities,’ it added in a statement on X.

The ministry said the financing was ‘part of an organised activity involving the collection of funds under religious pretexts… in preparation for their transfer in accordance with instructions from outside the country’.

A home has been left damaged due to falling shrapnel from intercepting a drone in the Metula area in the Upper Galilee region, Israel’s media reports.

More details are awaited.

Haji Babaei, the Iranian deputy speaker of the parliament, has been quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying that the Strait of Hormuz is ‘completely’ under Iranian control, adding that tolls must be paid in the country’s currency, rials.

‘250 members of parliament unanimously supported the Strait of Hormuz plan, and according to the leadership formula, this strategic waterway is non-negotiable under any circumstances,’ he was quoted as having said.

‘Despite sanctions, Iran’s oil exports have exceeded 1.6 million barrels, and today our country’s oil has become practically non-sanctionable.

‘The Iranian nation will not back down from its demands even an inch.’

Sir Keir Starmer lounged at a four-star boutique hotel in Valencia as Donald Trump threatened to ‘obliterate’ Iran, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The Prime Minister spent four days at the £200-a-night Valentia Cabillers hotel – complete with rooftop bar and swimming pool – as Trump delivered an extraordinary ultimatum warning he would ‘hit and obliterate’ Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened.

Sir Keir’s sun-soaked getaway came five years after he accused then-PM Boris Johnson of ‘appalling complacency’ for going on holiday as Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, declaring: ‘You cannot coordinate an international response from the beach.’