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.

Hezbollah said it targeted a military vehicle carrying a command crew with a drone in the occupied West Bank town of Taybeh.

In a separate statement, the group said it also launched multiple drones at the Kiryat Shmona barracks in northern Israel.

Across the central Beirut neighborhoods attacked last week in Israel’s deadly bombardment of the city, Orthodox Christians in Lebanon found themselves grasping for solace in their faith and beloved Easter rituals.

Many worshippers said they were still reeling from Wednesday’s Israeli airstrikes, which hit areas of Beirut previously considered safe and killed more than 350 people while wounding over 1,100 others.

‘What happened was a crime,’ said Ghada Chabo Markossian from Easter services at her Syriac Orthodox church in Msaitbeh, one of several residential neighborhoods devastated in the attack.

‘God willing, during this feast, the Lord will set right… these evil things that are happening.’

The priest attributed low attendance to a chilling fear that has grown more pervasive in the last few days of the Israel-Hezbollah war.

‘Many members of the parish are afraid to come, due to the terror they experienced two or three days ago,’ the Reverend Daniel Gawriya said.

Iranians have been reacting with disappointment today after peace talks with the US failed to reach an agreement.

US officials said the talks collapsed over what they described as Iran’s refusal to commit to abandoning its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials blamed the US for failing to reach a deal, without specifying the sticking points.

The failure of the high-stakes talks in Pakistan after 21 hours casts doubt over the future of a fragile two-week ceasefire, due to expire on April 22.

Standing outside a newsstand in Tehran, Farhad Simia said he had hoped for successful negotiations and an end to the fighting, but stood with Iran despite the failure of the talks.

‘I’m against war. I think negotiation is the better path,’ Simia, 43, said.

Some streets in Tehran were lined up with large Iranian flags and giant billboards glorifying the country’s leaders and military achievements.

Iran has claimed more than 3,300 people have been killed since strikes by the US and Israel started.

Iran’s Legal Medicine Organisation said in an update that the bodies of 3,375 people have been identified.

2,875 are said to be men and 496 women, with the Tehran, Hormozgan and Isfahan provinces recording the highest death tolls.

Hundreds of children have been killed, according to the update.

Seven deaths were reportedly of babies under the age of one, while 255 were aged between one and 12, and 121 were between 13 and 18.

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.