Sawt Falasteen - Iran defies US blockade to claim tolls from Hormuz shipping

With planned peace talks hanging in the balance, more fuel-hungry airlines cancelled flights, oil prices opened higher and the keenly-watched S&P Global PMI index showed eurozone business activity shrinking for the first time in 16 months.

Iran vowed it will keep the strait closed to all but a trickle of approved vessels for as long as the United States blockades its ports, brushing off demands from President Donald Trump that it buckle to US threats and both reopen Hormuz and surrender its enriched uranium.

While strikes around the region have mostly ceased since the two-week-old truce began, there has been no letup in the stand-off over the crucial trade route, with both sides seeking economic leverage -- only for Trump to announce an indefinite ceasefire to create space for more Pakistani-mediated talks.

"A complete ceasefire only has meaning if it is not violated through a naval blockade," said Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Tehran's delegation at a first round of talks. "Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is not possible amid a blatant violation of the ceasefire."

Ghalibaf's deputy, Hamidrez Hajibabei said Iran has received its first revenue from tolls it is imposing on ships seeking to cross Hormuz, a route that in peacetime accounts for a fifth of the world's oil and gas flows, and other vital commodities.

- 'Escalate' -

Analysts said Tehran, in particular its hardline leaders associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), believes that Iran's blockade gives it sufficient economic leverage to force Washington to back down on its main demands in eventual peace talks.

And some, such as Danny Citrinowicz of the Tel-Aviv Institute for National Security Studies, criticised Israel and the US for misreading the Iranian government's position.

"Tehran has consistently demonstrated a willingness to absorb economic pain while holding firm on what it views as core national interests. There is little reason to believe this time will be different," he said, in a social media post.

"Rather than moving toward concession, Iran is positioning itself to escalate."

A brief from the Soufan Center think tank said Iran's hardliners "argue that a prolonged elevation of global energy prices and mounting global shortages of some goods will increasingly pressure Trump to accede to Iran's positions, end the war, and eventually withdraw US forces from the region.

"Trump and his team calculate the opposite -- that the US blockade of Iran's seaborne trade, which carries all of its oil exports, will quickly cripple Iran's economy and force Iran to accept US demands."

On Wednesday, Trump told the New York Post that talks could resume in Pakistan within two to three days, even though Iran has not confirmed participation and Vice President JD Vance put his travel to Islamabad on hold on Tuesday.

In the Pakistani capital Islamabad blanket security remained in place for the fourth straight day in anticipation of possible talks, with transport disrupted and the city's government quarter and adjacent commercial centre all but shut down.

Schools in a so-called "Red Zone" remained shut and universities have shifted to distance learning, ahead of the planned arrivals of delegations from Washington and Tehran.

- Ships seized -

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they forced two ships to the Iranian shore from the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway for about one-fifth of the world's oil and gas flows.

They identified the vessels as the Panama-flagged container ship MSC Francesca and the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas.

UK-based maritime security monitors confirmed that three commercial vessels had reported incidents involving gunboats in the strait.

The US military's Central Command, meanwhile, said its forces blockading Iran's ports during the ceasefire had so far "directed 31 vessels to turn around or return to port".

- Lebanon-Israel talks -

After agreeing the ceasefire with Iran, the United States helped broker a truce between Israel and Lebanon, including Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed movement that had fired rockets into Israel in revenge for the attacks on its patron.

Despite the declared truce, Israeli strikes killed five more people on Wednesday, Lebanese media said.

Amal Khalil, a journalist for the newspaper Al-Akhbar, was killed and her fellow reporter Zeinab Faraj was wounded in an Israeli strike near the border, the paper said.

"Israel deliberately targets journalists in order to conceal the truth about its crimes against Lebanon," said President Joseph Aoun in a statement, denouncing "war crimes."

The Israeli army said it had "identified two vehicles in southern Lebanon that had departed from a military structure used by Hezbollah".

The Israeli air force then struck a vehicle carrying "terrorists", it said, who had crossed what Israel calls the "forward defence line" in southern Lebanon and approached its troops.

The army denied preventing rescue teams from "accessing the area" and said the incident was under investigation.

Israel and Lebanon, which have no diplomatic relations, will hold a second round of talks in Washington on Thursday.

Lebanon will request a one-month extension of the ceasefire during the meeting, a Lebanese official told AFP.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 2,450 people since the start of the war, according to Lebanese authorities.

burs/dc/ser

L.AbuAli--SF-PST