Lebanon and Israel are holding new negotiations under US auspices in Rome on Tuesday, against the backdrop of a regional escalation between Washington and Tehran.
The two countries, officially at war for decades, reached a framework agreement on June 26, after five rounds of negotiations in Washington, aimed at ending the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah and paving the way for peace.
But Hezbollah rejects the agreement, which calls for the group’s disarmament and whose implementation is set to begin with Israeli withdrawal from two “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon.
An Indian crew member was killed on Tuesday (July 14, 2026) while eight others, including six Indians, sustained injuries in an Iranian strike on UAE shipping tankers in the Strait of Hormuz close to Oman, in a major escalation of the conflict in West Asia.
U.S. forces completed their latest wave of strikes on Iran that the U.S. Central Command began earlier in the day at the direction of President Donald Trump. The five hours of U.S. strikes were the third consecutive night of attacks against Iran as Trump reinstated a blockade of Iranian shipping and proposed charging a 20% fee to guard the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest hostilities come after Iran said at the weekend it was closing the Strait of Hormuz, casting further doubt on an interim deal to halt the war and driving oil prices higher.
