Sawt Falasteen - Iran chief negotiator vows 'crushing' response if US returns to war

Pakistan's powerful army chief -- a key mediator in diplomatic efforts to convert an April 8 ceasefire into a settlement -- left Tehran after talks with Iranian officials, who have accused the US of making "excessive demands".

"Our armed forces have rebuilt themselves during the ceasefire period in such a way that if Trump commits another act of folly and restarts the war, it will certainly be more crushing and bitter for the United States than on the first day of the war," Ghalibaf posted on social media.

US media outlets Axios and CBS News have reported that the White House is considering renewed strikes.

Ghalibaf made the warning after meeting in Tehran with Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, a leading figure in international efforts to negotiate an end to the war, which broke out after the US and Israel attacked the Islamic republic on February 28.

Munir arrived in Tehran on Friday and left the next day, Iran's official IRNA news agency said.

Weeks of negotiations -- including historic face-to-face talks hosted by Islamabad -- have still not produced a permanent resolution or restored full access to the Strait of Hormuz, choking vast quantities of global oil supply.

US officials have repeatedly raised the prospect of renewed action against Iran if a deal is not reached. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, on the sidelines of a NATO conference in Sweden that there had been "some progress" towards a peaceful resolution but "things were not there yet".

The impasse has left ordinary Iranians in limbo.

"The state of 'neither war nor peace' is far filthier than war itself," 39-year-old Tehran resident Shahrzad told AFP.

"You can't even plan something as simple as signing up for a gym, let alone bigger things... I'm about to start a new job, and I'm scared war might break out again —- that I'll end up leaving the job like before, running off to another city out of fear," she said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Tehran was engaged despite "repeated betrayals of diplomacy and military aggression against Iran, along with contradictory positions and repeated excessive demands" by the United States.

Araghchi held a bevy of diplomatic calls, speaking with his counterparts from Turkey, Iraq, Qatar, and Oman, IRNA said.

US President Donald Trump also spoke on Saturday with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, whose office said he had told Trump he supports "all initiatives aimed at containing the crisis through dialogue and diplomacy".

- Israel strikes Lebanon -

Israel warned the residents of 10 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately on Saturday to avoid planned air strikes against alleged Hezbollah targets as fighting has not stopped on the Lebanon front of the regional war.

Since an April 17 ceasefire, Israel has continued strikes, demolitions and evacuation orders in south Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah, which has also kept up attacks on Israeli forces.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel after Iran's supreme leader was killed by US-Israeli strikes.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes on around a dozen locations in south Lebanon on Saturday including one targeting an agricultural area, "wounding several Syrian workers".

The NNA said an overnight strike in the southern city of Tyre targeted a site near a hospital and caused "severe damage" to the facility.

The hospital's CEO Dr Salman Aydibi told AFP it was the third Israeli strike near the facility, presently caring for around 40 patients, since the start of the war.

burs-ris/dc

J.AbuShaban--SF-PST